Nonviolent Future By Michael Nagler

“The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is to a more violent world” (Arendt pg 80). Violence is contagious, like a disease, which will destroy nations and our morals as human beings. Each individual has his or her own definition of violence and when it is acceptable or ethical to use it. Martin Luther King Jr., Walter Benjamin, and Hannah Arendt are among the many that wrote about the different facets of violence, in what cases it is ethical, the role we as individuals play in this violent society and the political aspects behind our violence.

Mohandas Gandhi was born in 1869 in the Indian coastal city of Porbandar (Background Essay). He then studied law in London, where he noticed that Indians were expected to imitate their rulers, the Englishmen (Background Essay). Gandhi wanted all people to live free, even those imposed by India’s caste system so he decided to take action in a peaceful manner (Background Essay). By doing so he was able to gain India’s independence in 1947 (Background Essay). This caused Gandhi to be known as “ Mahatma” or “ Great Soul” because he was able to do it without violence (Background Essay). Gandhi’s nonviolent movement worked because he accepted the consequences to his actions, strived for fairness to all mankind, and didn’t think of the British as enemies.

While when discussing the history of the world’s power forces, violence makes for stimulating discussion, other tactics were put to good use, one of these alternatives being non-violence. With the guidance of three worldwide heroes - Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson Mandela - with contagious optimism and high spirits, it became apparent just how much of a difference could be made carried out through non-violent terms. Mankind was introduced to another way to resolve major problems just as effectively, if not more, than violence could.

Throughout history, many conflicts have happened, some with resolution, and other without. We often tend to think of solving conflicts with war, since most of our history classes are based around World War I, World War II, and so forth, but many conflicts were fought, and successfully won using nonviolent resistance. Many people would use Gandhi as a well known example. Gandhi’s plan of civil disobedience revolved around this big idea called “satyagraha,” which he explains as, “a satyagrahi should always possess civility and humility, qualities that indicated self-control and an humble approach to truth” (Gandhi 50). He later explains that satyagraha is “truth-force” and that truth is soul and spirit, or “spirit-force.” “It excludes the use of violence because man is not capable of knowing the absolute truth and, therefore, not competent to punish” (51). He used this strategy to fight for indian independence. Many other incidents in the world have been fought using civil disobedience, including Women’s Suffrage.

Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

When Gandhi was trying to prove a point he did two main things, he would get arrested or he would stop eating. One of the main ways he got the Indians to stop using violence against the English was through not eating. He would not eat for days and sometimes weeks just to get his people to stop fighting. Although the founding father of civil disobedience was Henry David Thoreau but Gandhi was the first to really adopt the lifestyle of non-violence, he took constant beatings to show that being violent wa snot the answer. There was two different ways that Gandhi looked at violence, passive and physical. Passive meaning that you get under someone's skin and provoke the physical violence from the person. Physical obviously meaning physically harming someone or something. Gandhi used the term “Ahimsa”, which translates to nonviolence in english, when talking about nonviolence. The term means that no violence is okay passive nor physical. Gandhi also believed that violence was not a natural thing of humans, he believed it was learned through experience.

The history of humanity is written in blood. Even as violence as a whole is decreasing, acts of extreme violence continue to be perpetrated. To be clear, this essay is not about individuals violent and cold at their core. Such people are readily understood within the image of a lone, antisocial killer set apart from humanity by their very lacking of it. This essay is about violence conducted on a scale that can only be enabled by the participation of people who, under normal circumstances, would not act violent. The puzzle of how and why genocides, apartheid, state brutality, torture, and mob killings are perpetrated by ordinary people points to psychosocial mechanisms as their cause. Ordinarily non-violent people commit extreme violence

Violence is defined as a behavior involving physical or mental force intending to hurt, damage, or kill someone. In the words of Zak Ibrahim, peace is defined as the proliferation or the increase in the existence of Justice. But where does love fit in to these conversations? Violence cannot necessarily transform into love, but the presence of it is surely important. Violence involving our most loved ones, helps us find love and compassion in the toughest of situations, and leads us toward paths of peace. In this essay, examples will be drawn from Zak Ibrahim 's keynote presentation, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Beautiful Boy; a film directed by Shawn Ku, and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut.

You must also take a look at the reasons for violent acts and what constitutes as such. In the “Meanings of Violence” by Dov Cohen and Joe Vandello, they examine the difference in the meaning of insults between the Southerners and Northerners in the United States. They talk about the importance in social status and the concept that anthropologist have called “Culture of Honor”. With the concept individual is based on their social position and how tough they are or what courage they carry. There is also the idea that if a persons social standing in reduced for whatever reason that there is belief that violence could be used to restore their position. The idea of culture-of-honor is that an incident may occur over something as “trivial” as being glanced at wrongly, or showing a threatening insult. The individuals may not see it as being a trivial circumstance but a threat to stand their ground and prove their

One of the most influential songs of all time, “Imagine” by John Lennon, envisions a world of peace; “Imagine there’s no countries…nothing to kill or die for…imagine all the people, living life in peace.” During the 1970’s the hippy movement was very pro-pacifism and love, however, it ended almost abruptly. This was not the only cultural movement to advocate for peace, Mahatma Gandhi was the strongest advocate for non-violence in the last century, and he was assassinated. But can life really be lived completely peacefully? History has proven that violence is inevitable and that peace, while a beautiful concept, is nothing more than such. Since the beginning of time our race has shown that fighting is inescapable. There must be some reason as to why humans are violent creatures. Ayush Midha wrote an interesting article, “The Neuroscience of Aggression” which attempts to answer this question. Her authoritative work makes the claim that our species has a complex connection and desire for violence. Midha’s main argument is a claim one of cause and effect. All cause and effect claims have very opinionated and debated points of view. This makes her job hard to convince the reader of her standpoint. However, Ayush Midha’s effective use of Toulmin’s argument style makes her position strong and compelling.

“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Now the law of nonviolence says that violence should be resisted not by counter-violence but by nonviolence. This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully submitting to arrest and imprisonment.” (Mahatma Gandhi) Since Americas independence until today people try to find different approaches to defeat the inequality and the oppression. An old traditional thought is that violence can only be treated with violence, there is no room left for an analysis of the situation and try to approach it differently. Yet, there are ways like Gandhi quote states if we have to break the law and accept the consequences to counter violence by non-violence might as well accept this method; either way people suffer the consequences for “breaking the law”. On the onther hand, a nonviolence movement will shift people view on the positive side rather than the negative side; demonstrating that nonviolence method will achieve justice in a peaceful way without the consequences of violence. The best method to advocate justice is by fostering a Non-violent character to people and to stand up against the enemy with intelligence.

It has been debated though out history whether or not nonviolence “works”. Many societies, and this without question includes the United States, have mostly relied on violent tactics. Many people believe that violence is the only way to stop wars, even though it creates war, and people tend to believe that violence is the one solution to many global and political problems. However, recent literature and research is starting to prove otherwise. Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist, recently published a book, Why Civil Resistance Works in 2011. The research highlights data that shows throughout history, nonviolent tactics are more effective than violent ones in various ways.

Violence has always led to millions of casualties all over the world. This method of eliminating those who don’t share the same practiced perspective highlights the ignorance and hatred within that society. By practicing peaceful resistance, different ideals and viewpoints are shared, allowing insight into different cultures and customs. A deeper communication is presented by using this method to portray the emotions and frustration experienced by silent/harmless

Blessed is the man who can perceive the law of ahimsa (nonviolence)" (Gandhi's Philosophy of Nonviolence). He believes that violence is never the answer and that people should stay away from it. Violence will create another violence and there would be no end. Also, the government takes the violence resistant harshly. They ignore people who cause disturbance to the society and to the citizens. Having a peaceful resistance, the government sees the people and consider their resistance and try to come with a solution to satisfy their citizens.

the change for a peaceful future. In today's society violence is saturating the minds of