A day to honor the wisdom and vision of Mathama Gandhi
Today is International Day of Non-Violence, an official
commemoration of the United Nations. The observance falls on the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birth, to honor his work as a pioneer of the doctrine of non-violent social change. A funny artifact it is, it seems to me, echoing memories of days long gone, when internationalism was an emerging ideology and folks still had faith in the power of human beings to overcome their own history.
In the years since 9/11/2001, violence has (again) become the currency of the day. Some might argue that it is as it ever was, and my highlighting of a period embracing a brief moment of internationalism that embraces a strategy of non-violence is but a blip in the history of humanity.
History teaches us that societies far more violent than ours have preceded us, even though their weapons may have offered less fire power. Indeed, one of the defining terms of modernity seems to be a less tolerant threshold for violence as a method for solving human conflicts, at the same time that it develops weapons able to destroy with more precision and power than any seen before. Human beings seem well equipped to test and practice their ironic capacities.
I find it difficult to fall into easy cliches about the "nature" of human beings, or the overwhelming power of violence to capture the political imagination of societies. Visionaries such as Gandhi provide enough of the counter example to make those simplistic arguments about the basic nature of our species questionable.
But arguments about the tendencies of social structures and institutions to promote them path of least resistance, such as those that fall back into violent responses because they "seem" to be the most natural, those are arguments I can embrace.
Why is it I wonder, that violent means seem to so many to be the path of least resistance?
A few things to ponder on this the anniversary of Gandhi's birth and the day to advance his work.