By George Payne Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once said: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” To passively accept the Trump agenda is to cooperate with evil. By evil, Dr.… read more
Tag Archives: Gene Sharp
“What can replace war?”–Daily Metta
October 20: “The warring nations are destroying themselves with such fury and ferocity that the end will be mutual exhaustion.” –Gandhi (Harijan, February 24, 1946) War is costly, on an economic, human and even spiritual scale. Contrary to any myths we might still cherish about the institution, when we inflict violence to make ourselves more… read more
“USA Independence Reconsidered”–Daily Metta
July 4: “Real Swaraj will come, not by the acquisition of authority by a few, but by the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused.” –Gandhi (Young India, January 29, 1925) When Gandhi met with the British Viceroy Lord Irwin after his imprisonment following the 1930 Salt Satyagraha, they shared a pot… read more
“The spirit beneath the act”–Daily Metta
April 24 “It is not any single isolated act which can be called Satyagraha apart from the spirit behind.” –Gandhi (Young India, 9-24-1925) You cannot get far in the world of nonviolence before coming across Gene Sharp’s famous list of 198 methods of nonviolent action. Sit-ins, reverse strikes, pray-ins, they are all listed, and this list is… read more
Civilian-Based Defense
Civilian-based defense (CBD) is a nonviolent form of defense against invasion or revolutionary overthrow of a government. This technique has been well documented and made somewhat known to the public by Gene Sharp in his books The Politics of Nonviolent Action (3 vols. 1973) and Civilian-Based Defense: a Post-Military Weapons System (1990). In CBD citizens… read more
Person Power
Person power is a term coined by Michael Nagler to describe the core energy at the heart of any nonviolent social movement. Nonviolence begins with an individual’s conversion of a negative drive to a positive drive. When one person transforms fear, anger, or aggression, into universal love, compassion, and resilience, nonviolence is born. According to… read more
Parallel Institutions
Parallel institutions are one of the most crucial forms of constructive program. They are the social, cultural, and governance structures that a nonviolent movement builds of its own accord without reference to or even as a comprehensive replacement for the often oppressive existing institutions. Examples include: alternative governments, media, unions, agriculture, clubs, professional associations, civic organizations,… read more
