Paki S. Wright :
Common Dreams, March 9, 2002
Ground-breaking New Book on Nonviolence is Selling Like Hotcakes
Is There No Other Way? The Search for a Nonviolent Future
Michael N. Nagler's ground-breaking
new book, Is There No Other Way? The Search for a Nonviolent Future,
is selling like hotcakes from what I hear. Small wonder. Professor Nagler's
work was published last year, but in the aftermath of 9-11 will surely
come to be seen as a seminal work in understanding the causes of violence
and the sorely-needed application of nonviolence -- which is not the same
as pacifism.
For starters, let's get over the
prevailing modern assumption that waging peace is somehow wimpy or unworkable.
Prof. Nagler (UC Berkeley Emeritus) challenges us to really understand
nonviolence, as Gandhi meant it to be employed. It is not "passive resistance."
Neither is it nonviolence-unless-that-doesn't-work-and-then-we'll-go-back-to-being-violent-again.
It is a morally-compelling, wondrously effective way of responding to violent
force, not without its concommitent dangers, but then as Nagler says, "Nonviolence
is dangerous, but not as dangerous as violence."
Would that everyone in the Middle
East had a copy of this book, they might be able to see that nonviolence
is the only way out of escalating violence. The marvel is that we now have
a choice between the two modes of action. Calling it by different names,
the Quakers adhered to it, Gandhi perfected it, and Martin Luther King,
Jr. used it to great advantage during the Civil Rights movement; countless
other people and groups are now carrying it forward into our new century,
where it may be the brightest ray of hope there is in an otherwise dark
and gloomy forecast of a violent, militaristic, and authoritarian future,
the beginnings of which are already in place.
Since my novel about an adolescent
would-be suicide is coming out this May, I was struck by Nagler's ideas
about why, in a land of freedom and plenty, increasing numbers of adolescents,
at increasingly younger ages, are feeling the need to end their lives.
While there are many layers to such a complex issue, one thing is obvious,
says Nagler: "The reason a young person ends his or her life . . . is because
life has lost its meaning for them -- they cannot imagine a future with
any hope or purpose."
What's the tie-in between suicidal
young people and our war-based world? I think bright, sensitive young people
who have given up on life are the canaries in the gold mine. With everything
in the world to live for, why are they choosing to check out? Could it
be that the endless violence, trivialization and denigration of life all
around them causes them to lose faith in the future -- or at least one
they want to participate in?
This is where nonviolence comes
in, as an alternative way of thinking and living. Nonviolence isn't just
a negation of violence, it's an active embracing of peace in all its forms,
a refusal to accept less than the bravest and best we can be, as for example
with the Human Shield Project in Israel. In short, it's a calling, to our
highest aims as collective, collaborative, and cooperative human beings,
an ideal young people desperately need in our time.
Though sometimes it seems our culture
is presently sinking in a sea of negativity, there actually is more reason
for hope now than at any time in our history. We are fortunate to have
a humanitarian like Michael Nagler in our backyard. I urge anyone interested
in the future of the human race to read his book. Its principles may just
be the saving of us.
Paki Wright was born in NYC but
is a 30-year resident of Northern California, Paki's work has appeared
in The New York Times Book Review, among other venues. Her novel about
growing up Reichian during the McCarthy era, "The All Souls' Waiting Room,"
will be published this May.