Reject mob violence and lies across the board: An appeal to the center

Reflection on the present crisis

Pro-Trump protesters storm into the US Capitol during clashes with police

The United States is in the midst of a dangerous period. We are in the midst of a global pandemic, economic dislocation, and political crisis. American cities have been burning since May 26, 2020 caused by rioters following the death of George Floyd leading to the deaths of at least twenty five, and on January 6, 2021 the Capitol of the United States was attacked by rioters, who believed that the November 2020 presidential election had been stolen causing the deaths of five.

There are profound divisions and great numbers don't know their history and are being indoctrinated with one that is politicized. News and social media platforms have developed models that exacerbate divisions. 

Watching all this reminds one of another difficult time 1968, a year of riots, assassinations, and war.  Robert Kennedy speaking one day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered by an assassins bullet, and two months before his own assassination gave an analysis of the time relevant for today at the Cleveland City Club.

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people. Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

Some of the individuals involved in the insurrection on January 6, 2020 at the Capitol identify as Christians. Jesus commands us to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us. When one says the Lord's prayer there is a call to reconciliation to obtain pardon from the creator:  "If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions."

There are profound injustices and problems that require remedy, but violence is not the answer. But unfortunately, in the American political context born out of a revolutionary war of independence and a Civil War there is a cult of violence that is shared by many, but is not at the core of American strength. The vast improvements in American life did not arise out of war but out of commerce, politics, and civic nonviolent struggle. Long time peace scholar Michael Nagler  presents the theorem as follows: Nonviolence sometimes “works” and always works, while by contrast, Violence sometimes “works” and never works.  Nagler offers a more detailed explanation.

The exercise of violence always has a destructive effect on human relationships even when, as sometimes happens, it accomplishes some short-term goal. The exercise of nonviolence, or Satyagraha, always brings people closer. This explains why Gandhi, after fifty years of experimentation in every walk of life, could declare that he “knew of no single case in which it had failed.” Where it seemed to fail he concluded that he or the other satyagrahis had in some way failed to live up to its steep challenge.  Taking the long view, he was able to declare that “There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence. The end of violence is surest defeat.”

The monsters are more exciting than the saints. Popular culture focuses on the destroyers: Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot and their defenders and critics debate their merits, despite the societies they led being destroyed on every level: moral, material, spiritual and the rest. This is a mistake of the first order, and dangerous at a time of great economic dislocation and political polarization. But violence is visual, and "exciting" to the eye. Whereas an economic boycott, or a sit-in are often much more effective but not as visually captivating.

It would be better to focus on those who preserved the peace and made things better such as Konrad Adeneur, Alcide De Gasperi, Winston Churchill and others who founded a European order that prevented the outbreak of a major war for over seventy years as Metterneich and another generation did from 1815 to 1914. In Latin America Luis Alberto Monge, Romulo Betancourt, Patricio Aylwin, and others oversaw democratic consolidation in their respective countries along with rising living standards for their respective peoples for generations.

It is important to understand the power of nonviolent action and the pursuit of truth. Dr. Gene Sharp, a theoretician of nonviolent action, who passed away in 2018 understood that there was nothing passive about nonviolent resistance and that it also required strategy to increase the odds of success in a struggle. In 1990 at the National Conference on Nonviolent Sanctions and Defense in Boston, Gene Sharp succinctly outlined his argument.

"I say nonviolent struggle is armed struggle. And we have to take back that term from those advocates of violence who seek to justify with pretty words that kind of combat. Only with this type of struggle one fights with psychological weapons, social weapons, economic weapons and political weapons. And that this is ultimately more powerful against oppression, injustice and tyranny then violence."

The alternative to Gandhian and Kingian nonviolence, currently popular in some quarters is the Frankfurt school and Critical Theory which is a dead end in identity politics and repressive tolerance that will lead to more polarization and violence. Practitioners have justified the destruction of property and looting which in practice leads to anarchy and mass killings.  

 

Michael Nagler, already mentioned above, explained why property destruction is not nonviolent in 2008 in the above video. Nonviolence is the way, but the critical theory people, who despised Gandhi, now seek to compromise satyagraha by continuing to promote violence as an alternative. 

Satyagraha is the way of truth and nonviolence and that is the path back to the center and democratic consensus.

Positive change is possible but it requires study, reflection and moral action. Below is the first part of an online course on nonviolence that I highly recommend that people seeking to make the world a better place take.