“In concrete terms, what pure suffering, wholly one-sided, does is stir public opinion against a wrong.” ~ Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi: Correspondence with the Government (1959), p. 301
When Martin Luther King said “unearned suffering is redemptive” he was referring to the same effect. It is the “secret weapon” of satyagraha, the core dynamic of active nonviolence. It has the same effect on the oppressor as it does on the “reference public” referred to here: not always visible, not always enough to change outward behavior, but never absent. Mere passive suffering, unwillingly borne, rarely has that effect. If it did, our much-suffering world would be very different (and satyagraha unnecessary).
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By: Prof. Michael Nagler
As the Founder and President of Metta Center, Michael Nagler is also Professor Emeritus of Classics and Comparative Literature at UC, Berkeley, where he co-founded the Peace and Conflict Studies Program. Michael is the author of The Search for a Nonviolent Future and The Nonviolence Handbook: A Guide for Practical Action. His latest book is The Third Harmony: Nonviolence & the New Story of Human Nature. Visit his website: michaelnagler.org.
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well suffering could be a great burden to wear….but is a form of struggle in dark times. maybe action too has happen resisting german occupation in europe in 1945. l think ghandi speak about that nazism is a difficult thing to resist non violent way, it must be defeat by weapons in a war. terrible war…the second world one, l thing that study wars is a good point to begin with peace….too much suffering to many people, then we can think that the time of war is over…but maybe we dont realize it….
Hello Emilio,
Gandhi did not say Nazism could only be defeated by war. He said it could be defeated by nonviolent resistance and even enduring it without hatred would be helpful to lessen it. Of course, to really ‘work’ nonviolence would have to be done right, well prepared and backed by much courage.