Creating a World Culture That Is Nonviolent
By Robert J. Burrowes
02 October, 2014
Countercurrents.org
As we celebrate Mahatma Gandhi's birthday on 2 October, the
International Day of Nonviolence, we have the chance to reflect on our
progress in creating a nonviolent world. Obviously, creating a
nonviolent world has many facets and is a long-term work-in-progress.
But if we are to regenerate human society in accord with principles of
love, nonviolence, justice, equity and sustainability, it is
emphatically clear that we need to dramatically recreate much of our
culture, particularly in the West, where hatred, violence and injustice
are 'built-in'. How can we do this?
According to Gandhi: 'If we are to reach real peace in the world, we
shall have to begin with the children.' So, as we reflect, I would like
to encourage people to consider and, hopefully, adopt Gandhi's
suggestion before it is too late. And here is why.
My father's two brothers were killed in World War II and I lost a great
uncle at Gallipoli in World War I. Another great uncle was so
traumatised after being wounded in action three times at Gallipoli that
he died prematurely after the Great War, a psychologically broken man. I
have spent my life trying to work out why humans are violent and, in the
end, I discovered that Gandhi was right. Without even realising it, we
humans terrorise our children and inflict phenomenal violence on them.
How do we do this?
We do it by 'socializing' our children. That is, we inflict visible,
'invisible' and 'utterly invisible' violence on our children in order to
make them do what we want. This violence forces the child to suppress
their awareness of the mental processes, especially the feelings, that
generated their original and functional behavior so that they can comply
with our violence. But their obedience comes at the price of their
increased dysfunctionality in the future. For a thorough elaboration of
this point, see 'Why Violence?' http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence and
'Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice'
http://anitamckone.wordpress.com/articles-2/fearless-and-fearful-psychology/
So what is 'invisible' violence? Here are a few examples from my list of
more than 200: blaming, condemning, insulting, mocking, embarrassing,
shaming, humiliating, taunting, goading, guilt-tripping, deceiving,
lying to, bribing, blackmailing, moralizing with and/or judging a child.
And what is 'utterly invisible' violence? It is deliberate interference
in the expression of the child's feelings and the behavioral responses
naturally generated by these feelings (including when these feelings and
behaviours arise in response to our visible or 'invisible' violence).
This 'utterly invisible' violence occurs when we ignore, comfort,
reassure, distract, laugh at, ridicule, scream at, hit, restrain or
punish a child who is crying, scared, angry or otherwise expressing
and/or acting on their feelings. When we do this, our unconscious
message to the child is clear: 'Don't feel and act on your feelings,
unless they are happy or loving ones, or I will terrorize you until you
stop!'
If you terrorize a child in this way they will become fearful of
listening to their feelings. Moreover, as they lose their courage to
fight back against your violence, they will accumulate feelings of
self-hatred as well. However, without a safe opportunity to feel this
fear and self-hatred in order to release them, the fear and self-hatred
will be suppressed below their conscious awareness. And given the
extraordinarily unpleasant nature of these feelings – who wants to feel
like a coward and to hate themselves? – the fear and self-hatred will be
projected as fear of and hatred for 'socially legitimized victim
groups': depending on the social context, this will usually be people of
other racial or religious groups.
So next time you wonder why humans are still fighting wars, destroying
our natural environment and economically exploiting those around us, ask
yourself why you expect this violence to end while we are inflicting
massive violence on our children.
Of course, while creating a world culture that is nonviolent requires a
radically altered approach to raising children, we must do more than
this and 'The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth'
http://tinyurl.com/flametree maps out a fifteen-year strategy for
creating a peaceful, just and sustainable world community.
But rather than talk more about the usual political and economic issues
discussed in this context, I want to mention some aspects of culture
that are often ignored when we consider what creating our nonviolent
world means: the power of an evocative story, song, poem or painting to
inspire people to acts of courage, to acts of change. And in a culture
that celebrates violence so readily that violence is regarded as
entertainment and, in some countries, military displays are even
incorporated into sporting events, we need powerfully nonviolent
alternatives that both expose the violence and inspire us to embrace a
deeper truth. Here are some examples from people committed to
nonviolence.
In her novel 'Guantanamo Boy', children's author Anna Perera
http://www.annaperera.com/ exposes the ugly reality that children have
been kidnapped and rendered to Guantanamo Bay. In her critically
acclaimed novel, which has been translated into several languages and
nominated for many awards, Khalid, a fifteen-year-old Muslim boy from
the UK, is abducted from Pakistan while on holiday with his family. 'He
is taken to Guantanamo Bay and held without charge, where his hopes and
dreams are crushed under the cruellest of circumstances.'
In another of Anna's books 'The Glass Collector', fifteen-year-old Aaron
lives amongst the rubbish piles in the slums of Cairo where his job is
to collect broken glass. His life is wasted, for now, but can he find a
future that he can believe in?
If you would like to read some 'peace poetry' from Ghana, you might like
Professor Ayo Ayoola-Amale's incredibly evocative poem 'Splendors of
Dawn' on the Splendors of Dawn Poetry Foundation website:
http://www.splendorsofdawn.org Ayo's personal website with some
description of her phenomenal work is here: http://www.ayor.webs.com/
'Splendors' opens with beautiful imagery:
'In the footsteps of the sun comes the dawn from the womb of eternity
hollering light. We heard the sounds of centuries as the breath of life
caresses our mind to higher purpose with prophecy of days to come. Our
dawn is born with us unearthing the seeds of light, lightning light that
scent our whole soul delights as new centuries foretell. Light woke in
full to the path of all life and we taste the glorious scent of Poetry,
we taste life. Life was to us dawning, as our suns shine out from us.'
Australian Anita McKone has written many songs of nonviolence, to which
you can listen on her website:
http://anitamckone.wordpress.com/songs-of-nonviolence/ One of my
favorites is 'If I Look Beyond the Choices Given', which includes these
words (and is accompanied by her beautiful music):
So if I look beyond the choices given, my soul speaks loud and true
That my conscience is the voice of love, trusting others to love too
You may say that I'm naive but I'm creating what is true
When I stand against the insane fear that divides me from you.
But if you're lost in fear and desperate greed and want to bring about
my end . They say I must use violence or I have failed to defend
But if I look beyond the choices given, the violence stands unmasked
As an endless, powerless cycle, a future driven by the past.
So if I choose to face my fear of death and defend nonviolently
I'll be strategic and courageous while keeping my humanity
Some people say I am not god, but who else could I be?
But god and fear of being god, along with all I see.
If you would like to read some 'world peace poetry' from Japan, you
might enjoy this beautiful poem by Kae Morii, who is a member of the
Japanese Poets Club and a Life member of the World Academy of Arts and
Culture: 'Special Day': http://www.worldpeacepoetry.com/kae-morii/ You
can read a lot more of Kae's beautiful poetry here:
http://www.poemhunter.com/kae-morii/biography/ Her poem 'Kisses' is very
popular.
I kiss birds in a drowse
I kiss contours of trees to clear
I kiss a bead of dew on cornflower
I kiss a forehead of obsidian
I kiss a lip of hibiscus
I kiss a breast of grandeur ground
I kiss reason rising up
I kiss elegy sunk in your heart
The depth of you
The secret of birth
I kiss you
The moment
The sun kisses the sea
Harvey Arden champions the cause of Native American political prisoner,
Leonard Peltier, whose brilliant artistic and written contributions to a
life-affirming human culture, including his book 'Prison Writings: My
Life is My Sundance' can be seen here:
http://www.leonardpeltier.info/the_man
Pauline Bradley is a singer/activist in the UK. Here she is singing an
old favorite at the Faslane Peace Camp, to remind us that 'The People
United Will Never be Defeated':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKlZ_R0elM8
Robert Shetterly's portraits of Americans Who Tell the Truth
http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/portrait-galleries?name=asc&theme=all&education_level=all
is a wonderful and inspiring collection of portraits and narratives
highlighting US citizens who courageously address issues of social,
environmental and economic fairness. By combining art and other media,
Robert offers resources 'to inspire a new generation of engaged
Americans who will act for the common good, our communities, and the
Earth'. Robert has been too modest to paint and display a self-portrait
but I'm working on him!
Alice Walker's novels – including 'The Color Purple' – short stories and
poems need no introduction and they have been inspiring those committed
to profound social change for a long time. At the moment, she is
supporting the call for a Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration,
Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation:
http://alicewalkersgarden.com/2014/09/month-of-resistance-to-mass-incarceration-police-terror-repression-and-the-criminalization-of-a-generation/
In her recent poem 'Gather', Alice writes:
It is still hard to believe
that millions of us saw Eric Garner die.
He died with what looked like a half dozen
heavily clad
policemen
standing on his body, twisting and crushing
him
especially his head
and neck.
He was a big man, too. They must have felt
like clumsy midgets
as they dragged him down.
Bruce Gagnon, long-term campaigner to keep space nuclear-free, is also a
(very political) poet! http://space4peace.blogspot.com.au/ His latest
poem, in response to the US-led war on Syria, 'The US-Israel Take Down
List' starts with these words:
US air strikes against Syria
are illegal
under international law
but Washington and
Tel Aviv
'don't do treaties no more'
Gary Corseri also writes some evocative political poetry in response to
current events. You can read his take on 'Bring Back Our Girls' and
something about him here:
http://hollywoodprogressive.com/bring-back-our-girls/ Here's an excerpt:
From the droned villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan–
Bring back our girls!
From Nigeria, and the brothels of the Philippines–
Bring back our girls!...
From the "Occupied Territories" of Palestine
And from Israeli Porn Kings–
Bring back our girls!...
From the callous hypocrisy
Of scoffed-at dreams and snuffed-out hopes–
Bring back our girls!
But what of Gandhi's favorite song? One of them was 'Raghupati Raghav
Raja Ram', a Hindu devotional bhajan, which included these words:
Chief of the house of Raghu, Lord Rama,
Uplifters of those who have fallen, Sita and Rama,
Sita and Rama, Sita and Rama,
O beloved, praise Sita and Rama,
God and Allah are your names,
Bless everyone with real wisdom, Lord.
If you have the wisdom of all of the artists above, as well as the many
other people in 75 countries who are part of the worldwide movement to
create a world culture that is nonviolent, you can join them in signing
the online pledge of 'The People's Charter to Create a Nonviolent World'
http://thepeoplesnonviolencecharter.wordpress.com
Culture is not just something we inherit; it is something we create. It
can be violent or nonviolent. What sort of culture do you create?
Happy birthday Bapu. We are trying!
Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding
and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in
an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a
nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of 'Why Violence?'
http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence His email address is [email protected]
and his website is at http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com
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