For millennia humans used to solve their problems and conflicts with violent physical force, whether it was to discipline a slave, a child, a clan, or another country. We still prefer to do so because it's fast and easy. Even if we lose we just will try again later. This is why we have some international or family conflicts that have lasted for decades and even centuries.
I don’t know when and how real pacifism started, I am sure the idea had been around long before Jesus Crist (2000 years ago). However, for us, modern humans, he is the father of our modern non-violent movement against physical, violent solutions for our problems. Of course, we had Gandhi (100 years ago) and Martin Luther King (about 50 years ago). So, let’s assume that the idea of nonviolent solutions for our conflicts and problems reached the masses during the last century.
Nonviolent solutions for many human problems reached such a huge population in the world that it became unlawful to beat up the wife and the kids in many countries. We banned capital punishment in many countries too. I am happy about all of these changes because I see the seedlings of the future growing within the ruins of our still violent today.
You would ask why we move into our future so slowly. I think it’s because any permanent change happens very slowly. It’s too tempting to solve the problem with violence very fast: the child didn’t listen - prohibit and enforce using the belt. It doesn’t matter, that the kid will hate you at this moment if you are lucky or forever if you are not. The solution is fast and doesn’t require any thought or creativity. They say: "My father did it and I came out fine." The fact is that we are not fine! Violence never made anything fine! We have to beg our children for forgiveness for our weakness because using physical force is always a sign of moral and ethical weakness.
When English Powers assassinated Mahatma Gandhi they made him immortal and showed the whole world that nonviolent protest against any power is more powerful than them. They just couldn't think about any other solution for their problem and they wanted it fast. When our powers killed Martin Luther King they made him immortal! Today every kid in American school, maybe in any school of the world, is learning about the power of nonviolence. Let's add to that and teach the kids the moral and ethical weakness of violence.
Nonviolence is difficult. Nonviolence is slow. Nonviolence makes 2 steps forward then goes 1 step back. However, nothing permanent is fast.
We all remember the confrontation between the oil corporations of the US and Canada against our Native American Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Dakota, in 2016. The nonviolent protest lasted through 2016. WE, the people from all over the world, sent food, clothes, money, building materials to those who did the job of nonviolent protest. Many came to Dakota to join the lines. Anyone who suggested any kind of organized violence against police was removed from the picket lines and returned to the police as a provocator. It ended only when the winter came. The Dakota climate is similar to Siberia, negative 40 degrees started in October, as I remember, and police started to pour water into the picket lines. We will not forget. They are in our common memory in spite of the fact that the pipeline is built on the Sacred Lands of Standing Rock Reservation. This story is added to the history of nonviolence. The most important is the fact that the struggle continues!
If there are so many people ready for our common nonviolent future, why do we still live in our violent present? Isn’t 2000 years enough? The answer is - obviously not. The real changes started only in the last 100 years. The process moves faster, the more people are involved, the sooner we’ll reach critical mass. Right now those with an old world mentality are in power, they own the money, they pay the salaries, they create the rules. They control governments, armies, police, and the media. They will prolong the current system as long as they can. A lot has to happen before they’ll join our nonviolent mentality. And we have to always remember that nonviolence is just the first step into our real humanitarian future.
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