“Dictators have always found ready response to the violence they have used.”

Not just dictators, but violent extremists. Imagine what would have resulted after 9/11 if this country (and others) had gone in for a thorough-going nonviolent response instead of the rage for revenge and paranoia for “security” we followed.  The extremists (whoever they were, and whoever their accomplices may have been) would have found themselves thwarted in their ultimate aim—to reduce us to terror and degrade our freedoms—instead of finding such a ready, magnifying resonance. Their spark ignited our conflagration of fear and anger; the other way we could have doused it.

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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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