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Power of Nonviolence
The idea of non-violence (passive-resistance) has always seemed beautiful but too good to be true. As a practical proposition it arouses scepticism and ridicule. But Mr Gregg is strangely convincing. He marshals the whole weight of contemporary knowledge,and uses the experience of Gandhi,who has employed non-violence methods on a wider scale and with greater success than any other figure in history. Non-violent resistance is the doctrine of absolute pacificism. In theory, it recognizes no use of violence as legitimate in practice it includes all human relations,national and social as well as individual. Contents Include Modern Examples of Non-Violent Resistance Moral Jiu-Jitsu What Happens Utilising Emotional Energy How is Mass Non-Violent Resistance An Effective Substitute for War The Class Struggle and Non-Violent Resistance Non-Violence and the State Further Political Aspects Biological Considerations Doubts and Queries Preperation for Non-Violence Further Understanding Self Discipline Group Training and Discipline Notes by Chapters
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First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 19, 2019
This is a great starting place for people looking to learn about non-violence. I learned a lot and would recommend this book to others.
October 24, 2021
The queston is often asked: 'What can I do right now to promote peace?' Richard Gregg's answer: "The only way to improve the future is to improve the present by using a sound method, and keep on applying that method day after day." (p.198) He provides a thorough account of what that method of nonviolent persuasion looks like, a method that will "by its application, bring about a more just, finer and happier world." In sum, your questions about how to strengthen the peace movement are answered herein.
The book deserves a wider readership.
As to the editor's introduction (or the summary he provides of it in his later 2016 lecture based on the same, delivered at Colorado College), the crux of the matter is that the movement went astray, in the last quarter of the 20th century: "when most people think of nonviolence [since the rise of technique-based instrumental tactics with Gene Sharp and others since the 1970s] they think of episodic techniques of nonviolent resistance (or direct action) to strike, boycott, non-cooperate, protest, and so on, to overthrow an unjust power-holder, to change a law, to force opponents to the negotiating table, and so on [rather than] a much larger ground or permaculture of nonviolent power relations that provide the basis and animacy of these techniques." (2016 lecture, p.7--emphasis added, in italics) By introducing the idea of permaculture as a metaphor for what's needed, Tully suggests that people could benefit from an important corrective, by a return to the sources of inspiration for the nonviolent life, that always intended a much larger project of "gradual, intergenerational transformation" (2016 lecture, p.13). Hence, the importance of Gregg's book, especially the long chapter on "Persuasion", added in the 1944 edition, and included in all editions published since.
Or, as Tully puts it in the introduction, there is a major distinction drawn by Gandhi between satyagraha and what he called duragraha, the latter term meaning unethical civil resistance (intro, p.xlv; or, being disposed to enmity, p.xxxviii), which only serves to reproduce the dominant, destructive, or oppressive assumptions and attitudes, in the long run. That is, there is no "quick fix", and we should therefore be sceptical of those pretending to offer simplistic solutions or formulas. The problem is a master/slave dialectic, a kind of either/or: "With duragraha, individuals and groups allow the emotional propulsion of fear and anger to disconnect, alienate themselves from, and override the background relationships of mutual trust, define themselves as separate, and evince an aggressive or submissive attitude of distrust and enmity towards others." (intro, pp.xxxviii-xxxix--emphasis added, in italics) In order to avoid the self-defeating "often involuntary movement" (p.xxxix) of duragraha, the peace movement should go "back to the sources" and try updating the original insights, like those provided by Richard Gregg, to make them more psychologically real for the situation today. By delving into and developing its own ethos , the peace movement would be better able to engage effectively not only with given opponents, but more generally with the more widespread problem of a sick—if not psychotic—civilization, one that threatens to force us all into a corner, or lead us into a dead end, current trends leading either "to extermination by war or civilizational collapse." (intro, p.xxxix)
Available online, a PDF of Tully's March 1st, 2016 lecture: https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/po...
The book deserves a wider readership.
As to the editor's introduction (or the summary he provides of it in his later 2016 lecture based on the same, delivered at Colorado College), the crux of the matter is that the movement went astray, in the last quarter of the 20th century: "when most people think of nonviolence [since the rise of technique-based instrumental tactics with Gene Sharp and others since the 1970s] they think of episodic techniques of nonviolent resistance (or direct action) to strike, boycott, non-cooperate, protest, and so on, to overthrow an unjust power-holder, to change a law, to force opponents to the negotiating table, and so on [rather than] a much larger ground or permaculture of nonviolent power relations that provide the basis and animacy of these techniques." (2016 lecture, p.7--emphasis added, in italics) By introducing the idea of permaculture as a metaphor for what's needed, Tully suggests that people could benefit from an important corrective, by a return to the sources of inspiration for the nonviolent life, that always intended a much larger project of "gradual, intergenerational transformation" (2016 lecture, p.13). Hence, the importance of Gregg's book, especially the long chapter on "Persuasion", added in the 1944 edition, and included in all editions published since.
Or, as Tully puts it in the introduction, there is a major distinction drawn by Gandhi between satyagraha and what he called duragraha, the latter term meaning unethical civil resistance (intro, p.xlv; or, being disposed to enmity, p.xxxviii), which only serves to reproduce the dominant, destructive, or oppressive assumptions and attitudes, in the long run. That is, there is no "quick fix", and we should therefore be sceptical of those pretending to offer simplistic solutions or formulas. The problem is a master/slave dialectic, a kind of either/or: "With duragraha, individuals and groups allow the emotional propulsion of fear and anger to disconnect, alienate themselves from, and override the background relationships of mutual trust, define themselves as separate, and evince an aggressive or submissive attitude of distrust and enmity towards others." (intro, pp.xxxviii-xxxix--emphasis added, in italics) In order to avoid the self-defeating "often involuntary movement" (p.xxxix) of duragraha, the peace movement should go "back to the sources" and try updating the original insights, like those provided by Richard Gregg, to make them more psychologically real for the situation today. By delving into and developing its own ethos , the peace movement would be better able to engage effectively not only with given opponents, but more generally with the more widespread problem of a sick—if not psychotic—civilization, one that threatens to force us all into a corner, or lead us into a dead end, current trends leading either "to extermination by war or civilizational collapse." (intro, p.xxxix)
Available online, a PDF of Tully's March 1st, 2016 lecture: https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/po...
June 27, 2024
I first discovered this book when it was referenced on Khan Academy, in the YouTube video 'Nonviolence and Peace Movements: Crash Course World History 228' uploaded by the channel CrashCourse, in the article 'WATCH: Nonviolence and Peace Movements', in Unit 7, in the course 'World History Project - Origins to the Present'. In the video, the narrator, John Green, states that the author, who when he was young had been involved in the anti-war movement in the United States, traveled to India in 1925. He then spent four (4) years studying with Mohandas Gandhi including seven (7) months living at Gandhi's ashram in Gujarat. Then, when he returned to the United States, he wrote this book, which became very influential, and in which he described how non-violence would remake the world.
January 15, 2023
I was hopeful but could not finish this. Huge clouds of totally convinced conjecture. Give me better case studies and interviews instead of Gregg’s Thoughts. Small thing, I believe, to ask when you’re suggesting people offer their skulls for caving in over the course of what takes, in some cases, decades or more.
I’d have to be a monster to rate it one star, right?
I’d have to be a monster to rate it one star, right?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews