We, the board and staff of the Metta Center, have been in the process of writing something for our friends and followers about the electoral crisis, but the situation has been and remains so fluid that we waited for a definitive outcome at least of the election itself, though there are still dangers and unknowns… read more
This week, Michael Nagler moves out of his seat as co-host on Nonviolence Radio to take the place of interviewee. Stephanie asks Michael about the course of his life — which could well be three or four lives! Michael was a professor of Comparative Literature and Classics at UC Berkeley and co-founded its Peace and… read more
“What they’re most scared of is mass noncooperation. And when mass noncooperation is organized and strategic and targeted well, it has shown again and again that it can protect democracy and challenge authoritarianism.” – Hardy Merriman How can we defend and support our democracy, which feels so vulnerable as we head into this election? What… read more
Hear from Jamila Raqib of the Albert Einstein Institution on democracy and nonviolence.… read more
“If you lose,” the Dalai Lama once said, “don’t lose the lesson.” What is the lesson we must try to learn from this devastating election setback? First that the anger, prejudice, and self-centeredness in this country is more widespread and deeper than we wanted to imagine. Second, that in the days to come we will… read more
[R]eal Swaraj will come, not by the acquisition of authority by a few, but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused. In other words, Swaraj is to be attained by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority. ~ Gandhi, Young… read more
“I do not believe in the accepted Western form of democracy, with its universal voting for parliamentary representatives.” ~ Gandhi, in Louis Fischer’s A Week With Gandhi, p. 56 Well, that’s a shocker. What did he believe in? First of all, a polity informed by the spirit of nonviolence, as we have seen several times… read more
“Evolution of democracy is not possible if we are not prepared to hear the other side.” ~ Gandhi, Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 342 Gandhi did not believe that we have yet achieved true democracy (and certain election campaigns of the present year would bear him out!). Democracy was much more than a vote-counting system… read more
For the Summer/Fall issue of Nonviolence, we look at democracy—unifying theory and action. Inside: Q&As with Erica Chenoweth and David Ragland, pro-democracy activist Hua Ze writes about the challenges that dissidents face in China, essays that explore the roles of history and education in democracy. Plus, nonviolence case studies, poetry and short fiction. Exciting news:… read more
October 16: “Every village has to become a self-sufficient republic.” –Gandhi (Harijan, January 18, 1922) For democracy to be possible and independence meaningful, Gandhi was sure that it had to start at the bottom, from the villages, and build its way up. With each village as a “self-sufficient republic,” there would need to be work… read more
