Like all cult leaders, Trump fills a certain void for his followers. Stopping him means providing pathways to sustainable forms of spiritual fulfillment. Because of my background in ancient religion and culture I have special reason to be alarmed by the frequent references to the psychopathology of the president and his followers as a “cult.”… read more
Welcome to the History Blog!
xxxNonviolent movements have been expanding at an accelerating rate since the days of Gandhi and King.
The living history of nonviolence is emerging constantly, and we shall endeavor to keep you in touch with these developments on this Blog!
NV Resistance in WW2
On the 80th commemoration of Kristallnacht, Abigail Miller joins Nonviolence Radio to discuss the complexities of Jewish and non-Jewish nonviolent resistance during the Holocaust. Miller is the Director of Education and Historian in Residence at the Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education in Suffern, NY. She is also a Ph.D. Candidate at the… read more
Q&A: Artist Robert Shetterly
“The greatest gift of art is that it can give people permission to think differently, to alter both consciousness and conscience,” says Robert Shetterly. “Well-made art authenticates its own message. We can’t have enough good art.” Robert is a self-taught visual artist and a writer and cultural change agent. His painting of humane educator Zoe… read more
Love & Solidarity
Film still courtesy of Love & Solidarity “Violence is the use of power to harass, intimidate, injure, shackle, kill, destroy.” In the 38-minute documentary Love & Solidarity, Rev. James Lawson speaks about structural forms of violence. No one, he makes a point of noting, has a right to commit violence. With violence aptly illustrated, Lawson… read more
The Sorcerer’s Apprentices
While going through my Dad’s estate last year, I came across a strange artifact I had never seen before—a large, carefully crafted, but empty, wooden spool for wire. It was dated “May ‘44”, and its gross, tare and net weights were measured and recorded by hand, as if its wire had been unusually valuable. Suddenly,… read more
Acknowledging History
The following post was contributed by Adam Nolan, a participant in our current Certificate in Nonviolence Studies course. I have a few thoughts and things I have been grappling with for some time. It is striking to me that with each killing of an unarmed black man by police there is a renewed sense of… read more
Black Lives Matter & Police Accountability
The killing of yet another unarmed black person by a white police officer is not being dismissed by local authorities as inconsequential this time around. Perhaps because stark evidence left them in a no-choice situation: The shooting of South Carolina resident Walter Scott by Michael Slager was captured on video, by a passerby who recorded… read more
Time to Indigenize American Education
In the outstanding book Teaching Truly: A Curriculum to Indigenize Mainstream Education, Four Arrows (Don Trent Jacobs) and his fellow authors provide a revelatory opportunity for us teachers to get to the heart of what is important in education. Being indigenous, Four Arrows explains in an interview with Derrick Jensen, “relates to a nature-based reality… read more
