What are the consequences of violence in this world?

The

ideology

of

nonviolence

has come to play a major role in political struggles in the United States of America and, indeed, in nations around the

world

. Almost every organization seeking radical

change

in the USA has been targeted by organizers for the

nonviolence

movement. Organizations like Earth

First

!, which originally did not subscribe to the

ideology

of

nonviolence

, have since

then

adopted that

ideology

or at least its set of rules for protest and civil disobedience. Yet

nonviolence

activists have put little energy into bringing their creed to establishment, reactionary, or openly violent organizations. In

this

essay it

Accept comma addition

essay, it

will be argued that

nonviolence

encourages

violence

by the

state

and corporations. The

ideology

of

nonviolence

creates effects opposite to what it promises.

As a result

nonviolence

ideologists cooperate in the ongoing destruction of the environment, in continued repression of powerless, and in

U

The objective case of we, the persons speaking

us

.S./

corporate

Suggestion

Corporate

attacks on people in foreign nations. To minimize

violence we

Accept comma addition

violence, we

must adopt a pragmatic,

reality

-based method of operation. I agree that

violence

, properly defined, is bad. It should, ideally,

not be

Suggestion

is not

was not

wasn't

part of how humans deal with each other. I believe that a

society

should and can be created where no

state

, economic entity, or religion uses

violence

against people. In

such

a

society people

Accept comma addition

society, people

can achieve their individual and collective goals through voluntary cooperation. But when you scrape the make-up off the face of the

ideology

of

Nonviolence

, there you will find, grinning, the very

violence

it pretends to oppose. Much of the ability of the corporate

state

to neutralize its

opposition

in the USA (and elsewhere) depends on

purposeful confusion

Suggestion

a purposeful confusion

the purposeful confusion

of the language used to discuss the issues. It is important to distinguish exactly what is meant by

violence

, not being violent, and the

ideology

of

Nonviolence

. Most people have a pretty clear idea of what

violence

is: hitting people, stabbing them, shooting them,

on

Suggestion

at

of

for

up to incinerating people with napalm or atomic weapons. Not being violent is simply not causing physical harm to someone. But

gray

of an achromatic color of any lightness intermediate between the extremes of white and black

grey

areas abound. What about stabbing an animal? What about allowing someone to starve because they cannot find means to pay for food? What about coercing

behavior

manner of acting or controlling yourself

behaviour

through the threat of

violence

? Through the threat of losing a job?

Violence

as a dichotomy, with the only choices being

Violence

or

Non-

Suggestion

Nonviolence

violence

, is not a very useful basis for political discussion, unless you want to confuse people.

Violence

, the word, must be modified and illustrated to be useful for discussion. In

this

essay

violence

against animals, plants, and inanimate objects will be distinguished from

violence

against humans.

Violence

, unmodified, will always mean direct

violence

, actual bashing of people, and will be distinguished from the threat of

violence

, as when laws are

passes

Suggestion

passed

with violent penalties attached.

Also

distinguished will be economic

violence

, as when economic activity leads to physical harm to humans,

such

as starvation or disease. Other methods of categorizing

violence

need to be distinguished,

such

as

violent

Accept comma addition

violent, self

self-

defense

(military) military action or resources protecting a country against potential enemies

defence

against violent predation. The

ideology

of

nonviolence

will from

this

point on be distinguished from ordinary not-being violent by capitalizing it

thus

:

Nonviolence

. Most people are not-violent most of the time. Even soldiers and policemen spend more time in a not-violent

state

than actually committing violent acts. Most social-

change

activists, including environmentalists, have little or no experience with inflicting

violence

on other people. Yet the

Nonviolence

activists target social

change

activists with their doctrine, rather than teaching it to those policemen, soldiers, politicians and businessmen who do occasionally practice

violence

.

Nonviolence

claims to have found a method to bring

violence

to an end. The fact that it has not worked at all so far has not deterred the adherents of

Nonviolence

from marching onward towards their millennium. If only more people would listen to us, our dreams would come true, they say.

On the other

hand they

Accept comma addition

hand, they

like to claim that non-

violence

has a remarkable track-record of success, with the gold-

medalists

someone who has won a medal

medallists

of the

Nonviolence

Olympics usually being put forward as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Nonviolence

ideology

states that

violence

begets

violence

. Since the goal is a non-violent

society

, (even if other goals are included

such

as economic justice, national self-determination, etc.), only nonviolent actions can be used in struggles to

change

society

.

Thus

one may argue (politely), publish, vote, and assemble in protest. At the extreme edge of

Nonviolence

ideology

lies the Holy Grail: non-violent civil disobedience.

Nonviolence

has but one prescription for all social diseases. It prescribes Gandhi-brand aspirin for everything from a headache to terminal cancer. But the social diseases of the real

world

are complex, not simple. To gain a proper perspective on what political tools are best used to cure which social diseases you need to be well-informed of the nature of

society

and of the variety of political tools that are available. It should not surprise anyone that given the complex (and advanced) natures of our social diseases, a one-size fits all political solution is not likely to succeed. To put

this

is less

colorful

having striking color

colourful

terms, to

change

reality

Suggestion

the reality

you must know

reality

. You cannot pretend that

aspects

Suggestion

aspect

of

reality

do not exist just because there is nowhere to put them in your ideological box. It does not matter whether your

ideology

is

Nonviolence

, or Marxism, or Free-Market Capitalism;

reality

will do what it wants to do. So let us examine some aspects of

reality

. The goal to keep in mind is the minimization of global

violence

(the total amount of

violence

against humans on earth. Preferably including economic

violence

and even threats of

violence

). The failure to oppose

violence

encourages or allows

violence

, and the effectiveness of

opposition

directly correlates with the level of discouragement of

violence

. But the

opposition

needed to stop the rape of a woman may vary greatly according to circumstances (particularly, the personality and experience of the rapist).

Such

situations can be only of metaphorical use in

analyzing

consider in detail and subject to an analysis in order to discover essential features or meaning

analysing

the

opposition

needed to stop a sugar corporation from bribing presidents and congressmen to order the US Army to murder 2 million peasants in order to take their land (as happened when the US grabbed the Philippines in 1898). Since

Nonviolence

has only one solution to all problems, it can only offer degrees of Nonviolent action for any given situation. For rape I suppose you are supposed to Nonviolently interpose yourself between the rapist and the intended victim. If the rapist has a history of rapes, you can talk to him and tell him about how much better his life would be if he adopted

Nonviolence

as a way of living. For

war

Suggestion

the war

against

third

world

peasants you can Up the Level of

Nonviolence

. You can call for

Massive Nonviolent Protest

Suggestion

a Massive Nonviolent Protest

. You can sit in front of a Federal Building for a few minutes before being hauled away by the police, most probably being released after being given a ticket. I should point out here that I have chosen two examples that I know cause ordinary people and even people who believe in

Nonviolence

to question its effectiveness.

That is

to make clear that

violence

as an automatic solution to social problems is just as out of touch with

reality

as

Nonviolence

. But I must emphasize that

violence

is

counter-productive

tending to hinder the achievement of a goal

counterproductive

in most situations. Situations that are about to escalate into

violence

can often be diffused by wise intervention, by talking or physically placing oneself between antagonists. In bar-room fights on TV usually once two people start fighting the entire bar crowd starts throwing chairs around, but in

reality

in most bars friends of the drunken boxers pull them apart until they can calm down. At all levels of

society

self-

defense

(military) military action or resources protecting a country against potential enemies

defence

discourages aggression, and is a far better principle (when extended to the idea of community

defense

(military) military action or resources protecting a country against potential enemies

defence

and

defense

(military) military action or resources protecting a country against potential enemies

defence

of Mother Earth) to use as a starting point than

Nonviolence

. The normal interpretation of self and community

defense

(military) military action or resources protecting a country against potential enemies

defence

, arrived at after millennia of experimentation by almost all societies on earth, is that you can use as much

violence

as is necessary to bring an end to the current attack. Of course,

this

is a matter of judgement. It is

also

a

favorite

something regarded with special favor or liking

favourite

plea of hypocrites. The Romans used

self-

defense

(military) military action or resources protecting a country against potential enemies

defence

as a pretext for their village to conquer and rule a territory extending from England to Judea. The “American People” have self-defended themselves from the villages of Roanoke and Plymouth across

this

continent to the Pacific and on to Hawaii and the Philippines.

Nevertheless

,

self-

defense

(military) military action or resources protecting a country against potential enemies

defence

is not only a right, but a duty. A community that refuses to defend itself against aggression encourages

further

aggression. Under the rules of

Nonviolence

aggressors always win. There is nothing to stop them from marching around the

world

, taking what they want, killing those who are inconvenient, and congratulating themselves.