Non-violence in 10 lessons

"Taken from Ode Magazine April 2007.

Violence dominates the history books; here’s what can be learned from the history of warfare:

• Nations that build military forces as deterrents will eventually use them.
• The state imagines it is impotent without a military because it cannot conceive of power without force.
• Once a state takes over a religion, the religion loses its non-violent teachings.
• Practitioners of non-violence are seen as enemies of the state.
• A conflict between a violent and a non-violent force is a moral argument. If the violent side can provoke the non-violent side into violence, the violent side has won.
• Violence does not resolve. It always leads to more violence.
• Despite society’s promotion of warfare, most soldiers find war to be a wrenching departure from their own moral values.
• War produces peace activists.
• The best organized and most articulate group often prevails over the largest one.
• The hard work of beginning a movement to end war has already been done.

Check out the article at Ode Magazine. I hope you find it interesting," I whisper.

Are you listening?