On my rare visits to LA, I am always impressed (negatively) by the blatant violence of the billboards advertising films and TV. This past weekend was no exception. Apparently, there are fashions in violence. A while back it was crime, then a particularly sick one: the dead – zombies slouching toward you every other street.… read more
Posts by Prof. Michael Nagler
Is this #Enough?
If this is #enough, then what’s next? “Protests come and go, almost no matter what the scale and entrenched regimes of violence and injustice wait them out.” There have been far too many pious clichés in response to all these tragedies, but I’m going to risk one more: if – and it remains to… read more
THE POST: A (Somewhat Biased) Film Review
For full disclosure: I’m a long-term friend of Dan and Patricia Ellsberg, and I was a more distant friend but also admirer of Ben Bagdikian. I lived through the era depicted in The Post, and since I see very few movies I tend to have strong reactions to those I do. That said, I had… read more
A Story + A Request for Help
Dear friends, After three intense hours at a rally for white supremacy in Gainesville, Florida, three simple words “I don’t know” rang out with power. Aaron Courtney, who is black, stood across the lines from Randy Fourniss, whose attitude was proclaimed by the swastikas on his body and clothing. For three hours Courtney stayed with… read more
Nonviolence in the News – August 18th
“If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile German might, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for… read more
Nonviolence News – June 23rd, 2017
During this week’s episode of Nonviolence Radio, during the Nonviolence in the News Section, we run across no less than three (3) developments that, expanding their reach and taken together, have the potential to shift the paradigm definitively! They are, 1) thanks to the vacuum (or worse) at the top, power seems to be… read more
Disturbance at UC Berkeley: A Few Thoughts
RESONATING as it did with widespread feelings of frustration and impotence, the “successful” action last week to prevent right-wing agitator Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking at the invitation of student Republicans on the Berkeley campus has been met with a certain grudging admiration even by those in the peace and nonviolence fold. This, while understandable on… read more
Notes on Nonviolence Strategy: Part 2
This post is the second part of a two-part series. Part 1 looks at the outward aspects of strategy: creating a proactive, long-term nonviolent movement. This part turns to the inner aspects of strategy: exploring who we are as human beings and building meaningful lives. Man appears to be the embodiment of want. Want is… read more
Notes on Nonviolence Strategy: Part 1
This first post looks at the outward aspects of strategy: creating a proactive, long-term nonviolent movement. The second part considers the inner aspects of strategy: exploring who we are as human beings and building meaningful lives. It has been heartwarming to see the passion with which many Americans have said their “No!” to the policies… read more
Core of Ahimsa: Daily Metta
“God resides in every human form, indeed in every particle of His creations, in everything that is on His earth.” ~ Gandhi, Mahtama 4. 124 In our Western worldview, to the extent that it recognizes the existence of a being we can call God, that being is said to have created the world, more or… read more
