Andrew Sullivan, of all people, got me thinking about whatever happened to the concept of nonviolence. He has some good analysis of the latest Gitmo report
here.
Didn't Jesus say to turn the other cheek? I mean, my God, what are these people thinking when they're treating a person like vermin? How could any thinking human being come to believe that torture might work if engaged in enthusiastically and long enough?
And what is it doing to the soldiers who are asked to do these heinous things? We'll be locking them up in padded rooms when they get to come home.
I think what's monumentally lacking in our president, his party, and in the country as a whole, is empathy. I've been recently reminded that empathy doesn't develop until the age of 3 or so while assistant-teaching a roomful of toddlers at my daughter's school.
A pre-empathic toddler is tough to deal with. Children take each others' toys because they truly cannot imagine what it's like to have a toy taken away. They just can't. They are supremely self-centered. "How would you like it if Joey took your toy?" just doesn't work until empathy has developed. They push each other because they truly can't imagine what it would feel like if someone pushed them. Appealing to reason just doesn't work yet. You have to use a combination of redirection and distraction instead.
This is a normal stage of development in toddlers. On the other hand, a grown-up with no empathy for others can be a sadistic bastard. These are the people who think poor people deserve being poor. They have no idea what it feels like to wonder if you'll be able to feed your children this week. And they don't want to even think about it.
I recently attended an Oxfam Hunger Banquet. It's really an eye-opening thing to do. Everyone draws cards to determine what kind of meal they'll get. A certain percentage (corresponding to that in the world) eat beans and rice. A smaller percentage eat rice, for which they have to wait in line, aid-style. The rice runs out before the line is through. A much smaller percentage eat a typical Western-style meal. We made our Westerners wear crowns. Even though we were only pretending for one meal, there was a real feeling of jealousy in the room. We all joked about class warfare.
My guess is that people like Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and even FDR and JFK, felt deeply for those who were not like them. Rev. King knew that the only way to end racism was to be as unlike the racists as possible, to effectively model tolerance. FDR gave us our social safety net despite the fact that he came from a super-rich family and had never known want in his life. Ghandi is said to have forgiven the man who shot him with his last breaths.
This has been knocking around in my head for some time, and I'd like to look into the effectiveness of nonviolence further. I'm hoping some of you can suggest some books for me. My guess is that MLK, Jr. and Ghandi are natural places to start. What are some of your favorites?