How I see the history of nonviolence

I am not too excited to write about some of this because I have to repeat some of the thoughts from my past which are not original or rare, so I’ll try to run through those thoughts quickly. We can only assume the relationship of a cave man with violence. Religions gave the cave man the first rules and regulations for a functioning society. We all know the rules described in the Torah “an eye for an eye and the tooth for a tooth”, these rules came to power about 7000-8000 years ago. Very often I used to hear that those were the rules given to a wild savage who didn’t care much of human life and those rules started to turn a cave man into a human of today.

I don’t know how it really happened, but I do know that when Jesus Christ came he brought a new addition and change to those old rules. The new rule started to teach the people how to forgive and move on. The old rule “do not kill” was widen into “turn the other cheek”, which actually meant do not seek revenge. Today, 2000 years later, we still need to argue about that. Obviously these rules do not come to us easily. Too many were killed, murdered, injured so we, humans, finally started to realize that “an eye for an eye will leave everyone blind” and that “arrows and bullets produce only more arrows and bullets”.

The idea that we can’t solve our conflicts and problems with physical violence neither in a family nor in the society today is becoming more and more obvious to us. More and more people realize that, but this idea has not reached the critical mass yet and this is why we can’t stop educating each other about non violent resistance.

There are and always had been heroes among us who have been spreading the ideas and methods of nonviolence. We still remember and admire Gandhi who led Indians to prolonged boycott of all English men and goods until British army left India. Nelson Mandela in spite of all his suffering taught his people to move on, start anew, and build the nation, however, never forget about the terrible past to ensure it does not recur. Martin Luther King led the March to Washington in 1963 which forced USA remove the Jim Craw laws in 1964.

Today we do not need heroes or even leaders any longer. In USA Black Lives Matter movement intensified in June of last year, blacks and whites together came out to protest violent and unregulated police brutality against blacks in all 50 states. The reforms of police started in most of the states by the end of June. Don’t all of those Victories of non violent protest prove the power of nonviolence? Do you still want violent wars or revolutions to bring the changes that only seem positive, but eventually bring only more violence?

The last word is about change in our humanity over the last 7000 years. I believe that we, humans, changed a lot morally and ethically. We grew out of a cave men mentality that who is stronger is always right (not all of us unfortunately). More and more people practice nonviolent protest for societal change. We consider it shameful to bring up our children by beating them up. Women stand up against domestic violence and violence at a work place. I see a lot of positive changes and that gives me hope for the future.