#nonviolence

[jonasgoonface]

maybe consider violence.

[probablyasocialecologist]

The hostile, authoritarian response to legal and civil society initiatives from Israel’s Western allies shows us what they really want from the Palestinians. They don’t just want the Palestinian national movement to refrain from using violence against Israeli civilians, or even to refrain from using violence at all. They want it to renounce any form of action whatsoever that might compromise their ability to support the occupation and all the violence needed to enforce it.

[peacephotography]

Happy Portuguese Freedom Day! 🌸 Today Portugal remembers the nonviolent rebellion that ended a 50-year long dictatorship; reestablished democracy in the country and led the path to decolonisation and independence for Angola, Cape Verde, São Tomé e Príncipe, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau.

[blackponderer]

(Let This Radicalize You, p. 108, 111)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Christianity is a lifestyle—a way of being in the world that is simple, nonviolent, shared, and loving. However, we made it into an established religion (and all that goes with that) and avoided the lifestyle change itself. We could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain throughout most of Christian history and still believe that Jesus is our personal Lord and Savior or continue, in good standing, to receive the sacraments. The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on earth is too great.

― Richard Rohr, OFM, Yes, and...: Daily Meditations (2013). Rohr identifies one of the fundamental theological errors of the Southern Baptists.

[Robert Scott Horton]

[thichnhathanhgems]

How can we as individuals influence the collective consciousness of our nations and move in the direction of peace? We do this by uprooting the roots of violence and war within ourselves. To prevent war, we cultivate nonviolence. We practice mindfulness in our daily life so that we can recognize and transform the poisons within us and our nation. When we practice nonviolence in our daily life, we see the positive effects on our families, society and government.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, in "Creating True Peace".

Art: Carlos Taylor

[newyorkthegoldenage]

An item in the Daily News spotlighted followers of Mohandas Ghandi at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in 1922.

Photo: NY Daily News via ny1920

[many-sparrows]

Christians for a free palestine call tomorrow night! This is the group that blocked off the congressional cafeteria in protest. Let's show up in force!

[azspot]

Modern Christian reading of the New Testament has been properly shamed by the Holocaust into rediscovering the hugely semitic seedbed of references and allusions which undergird our texts, requiring us to recover knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures. But what we haven’t had, until now, is a dynamic reading of the Hebrew Scriptures themselves, positing a detectable learning process by which it becomes possible to imagine that Jesus was fulfilling something. That he was indeed the culmination of a millennia-long act of communication to which the texts of both Testaments are monuments.

Signs of Change: The Bible’s Evolution of Divine Nonviolence

[weil-weil-lautre]

And as we seek to remove the barrier of segregation, it must always be stressed that it does not serve merely to straighten up conditions for the Negro, but for all people, for all people involved in the system are affected by it. We seek to defeat the evil system rather than individuals who happen to be caught up in the system. And I think that is a vital aspect of the method of nonviolence. Violence defeats individuals and so often fails to get back to the causal factor, but nonviolence goes beneath the surface and seeks to remove the causal basis, which is the evil system itself.

Martin Luther King, Jr.; "Justice Without Violence" (1957)

[peacephotography]

Clean Hong Kong Action, 2019 A series of images documenting the protests in Hong Kong with all the faces of the participants punched out to protect their identities. Photograph: Wai Hang Siu

[thepeacepigeon]

“Woman, life, freedom.” How the women of Iran protest the hijab

(Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

In September 2022, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was arrested by morality police in Tehran, Iran, for refusing to wear a hijab. Hijabs have been mandatory in Iran for women since the revolution in 1979, when the Imperial State of Iran was replaced with the Islamic Republic. Only a month after the victory of the revolution, Iran's new head of state, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declared: “Sin is not allowed in Islamic Cabinet ministries. Women should not appear naked in the ministries. Women are allowed only with a hijab. There is no obstacle to them working but only if they wear the hijab as prescribed by Islamic law.”

(Aristotle Saris/AP Photo)

The following day, over 15,000 Iranian women celebrated International Women’s Day, gathering in front of the prime minister’s office in Tehran in protest against the mandatory hijab. As of 1983, Parliament has since passed the Islamic Penal Code, which establishes a punishment of “up to 74 lashes for women appearing without Islamic hijab in public.” In 1996, the law was revised and replaced with “physical punishment with incarceration and fines.” 

In the case of Mahsa Amini, her suspicious death in police custody sparked massive outrage across the country, prompting widespread and large-scale protests. Videos were posted and spread online of Iranian women cutting their hair and burning their hijabs, which served as a powerful way to both protest the morality police responsible for Amini’s death and reject the policy of compulsory hijab. Iranians— both men and women, peacefully protested in the streets of Tehran, and in big and small towns across the country, chanting, “Woman, life, freedom.” 

(Safin Hamed/AFP/GI)

While many of these protests have been shut down or lost traction and attention outside of Iran, political activism in the name of women's equality and freedom continues to thrive in different forms. Widely recognized imprisoned female activists continue to leak statements and voice recordings online, describing and criticizing their living conditions in prison and encouraging other activists to keep working. Discussions and online meetings continue to be held in private online forums such as Twitter, Telegram, and WhatsApp. The women of Iran continue to engage in quiet civil disobedience regardless of the risks or consequences.

In 2017, five years before Mahsa Amini's death, a young woman named Vida Movahed climbed and stood on top of a utility box on one of Tehran's busiest streets. She stood, bareheaded—calmly waving her white scarf on a long stick. Her peaceful yet powerful display of defiance went viral, and photos soon circulated of other Iranian women taking off their headscarves in public. These acts of resistance contrast the violent treatment women like Mahsa Amini face at the hands of the Iranian government and police. They serve as an important example and reminder of the power the people can hold. 

Kenyon, Peter. “Public Protests Are over but More Iranian Women Are Refusing to Wear the Hijab.” NPR, NPR, 20 June 2023, www.npr.org/2023/06/20/1183152677/public-protests-are-over-but-more-iranian-women-are-refusing-to-wear-the-hijab.

Bazoobandi, Sara, et al. “Hijab in Iran: From Religious to Political Symbol.” Carnegie Endowment, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 13 Oct. 2022, carnegieendowment.org/sada/88152. 

Alfoneh, Ali, et al. “The End of Mandatory Hijab in Iran?” Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, 28 Feb. 2024, agsiw.org/the-end-of-mandatory-hijab-in-iran/. 

Tajali, Mona. “Women’s Activism in Iran Continues, despite Street Protests Dying down in Face of State Repression.” The Conversation, 16 Nov. 2023, theconversation.com/womens-activism-in-iran-continues-despite-street-protests-dying-down-in-face-of-state-repression-213514. 

Radio, CBC. “Peace Movement: The Impact of Grassroots Activism, Policy, and Culture.” Gray Group International, Gray Group International LLC, 5 Oct. 2022, www.graygroupintl.com/blog/peace-movement.

[anarchonist]

I really need liberals and other non-violence advocates to understand the main problem with their position on non-violence: proclaiming that you're never going to resort to violence is an invitation for violent people to escalate their violence against you or the people you claim to defend.

Moralizing people for not being 100 % openly and proudly anti-violence is not only a tone-deaf, but an actively dangerous thing to do. A person might in their heart of hearts be fully against violence of any kind, but by trying to get them to openly assume a hard pacifist stance in order to claim some intangible moral high ground, you are putting them in a dangerous position: now fascists and bullies will assume that the person is an easy target.

It's a tough pill to swallow for the "marketplace of ideas" crowd, but people don't always treat you the same way you treat them. You assume that if you openly declare your intention to not resort to violence under any circumstances, your opponent will automatically respect that - or if they don't, there will be some kind of consequence from above. From authorities, from the public, hell, from God himself. But that isn't a given. What you're doing is throwing yourself at the opponent's mercy and telling them to do whatever they like. You're assuming a lot about their humanity, which might not even exist.

And that's what this is about. When I keep saying that violence is the only language fascists and bullies understand, it isn't out of some deep immoral desire to hurt people and just trying to find "acceptable targets". It's not even always about the violence against fascists itself. It's about keeping that threat looming, keeping the people who would like nothing more than to hurt you guessing: "If I start escalating violence against this person, will they fight back? Perhaps I shouldn't risk it, I could get hurt. And violence is only fun when it's one-sided in my favor."

Violence is ugly. Violence is brutal. Violence causes damage that may never heal. You maybe shouldn't find violence in itself fun - if you do, then you might be close to the kind of person who's just looking for an acceptable target (like fascists are) - but violence is sometimes necessary. And since fascists, like all bullies, are cowards, even the slightest chance that they might get hurt themselves might deter them, might keep them from more violence.

So no, proclamations of non-violence do not help in deescalating violence, they do the opposite. They are an incredibly dangerous thing to do when confronted with violent fascists who would like nothing better than having a non-resistant punching bag. You do not even always have to openly assume a pro-violence stance, sometimes simply keeping the bully in the dark about whether or not you're going to fight back might make them hesitate.

[suprememastertv]

I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.

Beloved Mahatma Gandhi Ji (vegetarian) (1869-1948) "Father of India" Leader of the non-violence movement

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

💗 Please join Supreme Master Ching Hai to sincerely thank God Almighty for World Vegan, World Peace and souls’ Liberation 💗 Every day at 9:00 PM Hong Kong time 🙏

SupremeMasterTV.com

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

The Very Last Resort

(Arron Bushnell self-immolates)

Stephen Jay Morris

3/2/2024

©Scientific Morality.

A normal person cannot comprehend someone walking up to the Israeli Consulate and pouring gasoline all over themselves, striking a match, and burning to death while screaming, “Free Palestine!” Was he insane? Back in the 60’s, Vietnamese Buddhists set themselves on fire to protest America’s occupation of their country. They believed in reincarnation and had faith that they would return to earth for their sacrificial good deed. But Arron? He was a member of the United States Air Force. It is alleged that he was a Gay Anarchist, which makes me very inquisitive about him. Why was he in the Air Force? Was he a weekend leftist? I wonder if this question will ever be answered.

Let’s talk about his political suicide. Or was it suicide? This is a very controversial point. This act was, indeed, an existential shock. As for me, I am afraid of death, even were it to occur in my sleep. But many brave souls are willing to die for a cause, or for a loved one. I would die for my wife. That is understandable. But for my country? People who send others to war would never die for the USA. So, why would I?

Why would a 25-year-old man self-immolate? Was it because he was experiencing a moral panic? Maybe. If you are a moralist and hear continuous, daily death tallies of innocent men, women, and children, you feel helpless. He may have had fantasies of being a Rambo type and going into Gaza with an AR-15, shooting IDF soldiers, and freeing Palestinians. Or, perhaps, parachuting into Gaza with food and water to help. Maybe Navy Seals could complete such an unimaginable act, but without professional help, it is not really feasible. What Arron did was apparently self-determined and purposeful. It was his protest of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine, the genocide of the Palestinian people, and the U.S. support of the Israeli government in these actions.

The mainstream media played this down as suicide. The reactionary element of America has played it cool. Oh, there have and will be insensitive memes or hateful posts on X, but I would be very surprised if some conservative pundits pose analytical theories on Arron’s motives. Maybe some MAGA lunatic will set himself on fire to stop abortion. (Am I now a participant in stochastic terrorism? Sure, why not.) I doubt that it would ever happen. It would be fun, though.

What Arron Bushnell did was a humanitarian act of altruism; the highest form of altruism, which is putting someone else’s needs above your own. America is so indoctrinated with the Ayn Rand virus of, “Fuck you! Me first.” Sacrifice is more moral than self-interest. What Bushnell did was the highest form of morality: sacrifice.

If you are willing to die for a cause, die in the anarchist revolution. Bakunin once said, “A revolutionary is a doomed man!” There is nothing romantic about revolution. It is full of hardship, bloodshed, and death. If that scares you, then become a Democrat or Republican, and waste your vote.

Me? I’m almost 70 years old. Unlike President Biden, however, I know my limitations.