A History Of Non-Violence

Gods above spare me.

A new book is suggesting that non-violence would be a better solution to all the worlds problems. Not just that, but would have been a better solution to all the problems in history. The American Revolution and Civil War would have had, according to the book, far better outcomes if the violence in them were removed. Same thing with World War Two. The evidence? Well, from the book review on Salon, which, surprisingly, is somewhat critical, there isn't much. The author feels that "economic" resistance like the Boston Tea Party would have been more successful. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't that entail a mob storming ships, threatening to beat the defenders of those ships if the mob weren't allowed on board? The author feels that far more Jews were saved, well, would have been saved, by the passive resistance of the Denmark where only 400 of 6000 Jews were deported as opposed to the Netherlands, which fought back, where 100,000 out of 140,000 were killed.

I could go on, but why bother. There are two, classic, examples of where non-violence has really worked. They are the overthrow of British rule in India, as exemplified by the teachings of Ghandi, and the American Civil Rights movements of the 60's, as exemplified by the teachings of King. However, both these successful non-violent movements were against what was fundamentally a moral state (and yes, despite the warts, which I can list as well as the next man, Great Britain and the US are moral states). Show me the Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, etc., that was successfully overthrown by a non-violent resistance with no outside military might be wielded by outside entities. Just one. The Cedar Revolution would count except that Jordan wasn't a authoritarian dictatorship at the time. It was simply being ruled by one, which is still in existence. You might count the Orange Revolution except that there were a bunch of countries threatening the dictator there.

Let's face it, you know I won't sock your face in because of the policeman that's going to come knocking on my door, not because my neighbors will go 'tsk, tsk.' That policeman is wielding violence on your behalf and you count on it being there. There world still breaks down to wolves, sheep & sheep-dogs.