“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment, and the other by arts of love.” ~ Gandhi, Young India, January 8, 1925

Kenneth Boulding, a founder of modern peace research, called these respectively “threat power” and “integrative power,” and (economist that he was) identified a third that was between these two: “exchange power.” Economic muscle can be flexed either as coercion or persuasion. Be that as it may, the paraphrase of our present belief system and basis of policy (where “our” means the mainstream, officialdom) is “Power of one kind: obtained by fear of punishment, period.” This defines in a nutshell where we are now and where we need to go: to learn, practice, and by practicing awaken in others the “arts of love.”

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About Daily Metta

Stephanie Van Hook, the Metta Center’s executive director, launched Daily Metta in 2015 as a way to share Gandhi’s spiritual wisdom and experiments with nonviolence.

Our 2016 Daily Metta continues with Gandhi on weekdays. On weekends, we share videos that complement Michael Nagler’s award-winning book, The Search for a Nonviolent Future: A Promise of Peace for Ourselves, Our Families, and Our World. To help readers engage with the book more deeply, the Metta Center offers a free PDF study guide.

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