Having an Opponent May Not Be to Your Benefit

If I seem to be starting in the middle of a topic it's because I have posted about nonviolent action before, and am continuing now.

Nonviolence action is a way to sanction opponents without using physical violence. That is it's a way to apply strong ethical, moral, or social pressure to penalize an opponent for noncompliance with your wishes.


In order to have an opponent you need be against another.

It may not be necessary to be against someone to bring about social or group changes. It may be counter effective to make others opponents or enemies. There are many ways I may choose to to help a person to understand my position before I choose to oppose her directly. For example I could present my take on one of his positions. Explanations, reasoning,, informing, honest truth telling may lead to positive change. Education and art may help. Efforts to understand the other's belief, value, or assumption may provide me with useful insights helpful in my attempts to change hes behavior There are many actions I may use use before resorting to violent or nonviolent opposition. I might even find a way to cooperate.


Nonviolent action seems best used as mass action and often takes the form of noncooperation. Nonviolent action of any kind is a forceful rejection of passivity and submission. Taking nonviolent action is to wage a conflict without violence. Nonviolence is definitely not a way to avoid conflict. Nonviolent action is a direct matching of forces in conflict and not to be entered into lightly.


If you are considering taking nonviolent action it is good to remember that it has sometimes proven to be a step toward violent action. If you have nonviolent action in mind it may be a good idea to consider what others have learned about it.  It may also be a very good idea to begin to list that which you may do before becoming oppositional.It may be good to remember that non violent action has been used as a tool for 'bad' too. In nonviolent action you are usually forcing others to do something they don't want to do.

Wronged

We are confronted with wrongs and injustices. We may choose not to tolerate one of them.
What can we do? What ought we do?
What we decide and determine is important.

Here, I plan to begin to lay out one large set of options. That set is called "Nonviolent Action." Nonviolent action is a powerfully effective way for dealing with wrongs and injustices.

As you may remember, nonviolent action is an active technique for applying power to a conflict, without the use of physical violence.

You have the power.

Nonviolent Action is not passive. It is action that is nonviolent. It can involve acts of omission, commission, or a combination of the two. You and I could probably identify more that 100 specific methods of action or 'nonviolent weapons' right now. There are more. An individual may use many of them. Others are better used by groups.

Before getting deeply into nonviolent action, it is wise to more clearly identify the wrong you wish to right. The better you understand the nature of the wrong, the better your chances of righting without painful complications.

Looking at areas of nonviolent alternatives broadly, you may refuse to acts that you usually perform, or are required by law to perform. You may perform acts that you do not usually perform, are not expected by custom to perform, or are forbidden to perform. Sounds a bit like home. The idea is that you have a wide variety of choices available.

By the way, this information is available from The Albert Einstein Institution: www.aeistein.org 

Nonviolent methods may be sorted into three classes: nonviolent protest and persuasion, noncooperation, and nonviolent intervention.

Start clarifying an injustice and I'll prepare to post more on the topic.