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Ten Key Values

Non-Violence

By David Ihnen

Greens are dedicated to the notion that conflicts can be resolved without resorting to violence. In fact, we envision a society where war is obsolete. Many people believe, however, that such a desire is naive and even dangerously irresponsible. After all, they say, violence is part of the natural order and often appears to be the only thing that can deter aggressors. Violence as the only way to successfully resolve conflicts is the central assumption of our popular culture as well as our foreign and domestic policy.

Greens reject this popular notion and instead follow advocates of nonviolence such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who spoke to this view when he said "My only answer is that mankind has followed the so-called practical way for a long time now, and it has led inexorably to deeper confusion and chaos. Time is cluttered with the wreckage of individuals and communities that surrendered to hatred and violence. For the salvation of our nation and the salvation of mankind, we must follow another way."

Our inability to see beyond violent solutions to conflict is rooted in our culture's myth of redemptive violence. We are bombarded from an early age through TV, movies, books, and magazines with the image of a good guy who is opposed to an irreformable bad guy. Through most of these stories, the good guy suffers horribly until somehow he breaks free and vanquishes the villain. The pervasiveness of this story line means that we don't learn how to resolve conflicts nonviolently and, in fact, often think that there is no other way.

Reacting violently to others also forces us to adopt their ways in order to defeat them - in other words, we become what we hate. In 1954, Richard Nixon said, "Their [the Soviet] plan, apparently, was to force the United States to stay armed to the teeth, to be prepared to fight - anywhere in the world - that they, the men of the Kremlin, chose. Why? Because they knew that this would force us into bankruptcy; that we would destroy our freedom in attempting to defend it."

And destroying our freedom is exactly what we've done. We've created a spy network that we use to spy on our own citizens. We have "national security policies that infringe on our rights. America regularly undermines elections in other countries, unseats legitimately elected regimes, and promotes the assassination of leftist leaders. George William Russell says that "we are the largest militarist state in the history of the world. We have become our enemy."

By rejecting violence as a solution, Greens have taken the first step toward healing our nation and our world. We must distinguish, however, between nonviolence and pacifism. Nonviolent resistance seeks to transform the oppressor through action. It necessitates a creative alternative to violence and, many times, shames the oppressor into repentance. It may be coercion, but it is not violent coercion. Pacifism does not share this element of action.

Nonviolent direct action has been extremely successful this century. The Philippine government under Marcos was brought down by nonviolent direct action and the nonviolent actions against the South African government were the primary tool of change since the violent attempts to unseat the government were spectacular failures. In this country, the civil rights movement and, in large part, the labor movement have been instrumental in peacefully changing life in this century.

This doesn't mean that direct action is easy. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said "Nonviolent direct action usually entails more pain than it should. It always brings unmerited suffering to the campaigner. Confrontations with injustice are never fair." Greens believe that nonviolence is the high road - fraught with peril - but in the final analysis it is the best way.