The Manifesto of Nonviolence
The conviction that nonviolence is a high value, is shared by many people. Also its use for peace is widely known. Still all of us have moments when we act violently. We all must learn to treat others and (not to be forgotten!) ourselves without violence. The following suggestions may be of help, but remember - like anywhere - not to follow them strictly by their words, but rather by their spirit.
As a supplement for the following text there are planned to be
some questions about nonviolence with proposals for answers
- Let us have the courage to enjoy our lives in our personal ways, and let us let others live their lives their ways! That means we should not feel attacked by others living other lives than we do. People who live in wagons, people who only eat raw food, are often looked at with some hostility - although they do not hurt anyone with that. Besides the possible fact that their ways of living can make others envious. People living in a way we do not have the courage to live, need not be regarded with hostility, we ought better to admire them.
- To treat ourselves nonviolently includes to have the courage to find solutions for problems within ourselves. Thus we should not say: "I can't do anything, someone else will have to do it", or: "A single person cannot do anything anyway." Such excuses are only suitable to declare ourselves less important than we are! To credit ourselves with something, so much self-esteem should be the least to have. It does not serve the world if we are humble and make ourselves small and meaningless.
- Nonviolence in every-day life also means: not to put people in boxes they do not feel well in. Of course people have a tendency to put themselves in boxes, e. g. calling themselves Christians, Swiss, communists, Anthroposophists, bakers, left-handers, hippies, democrats, Jews, biologists, Bavarians. That is quite human. But we should only render a limited value to those classifications, though, because they are lived by different people in their specific individual ways.
- We should get used to talking more to the peolpe rather than about them. When we have difficulties with some person, sure there is nothing to say against talking to others about that person and our conflict, in order to make the solution of the problem easier for us - whether to get some advice or just to have someone to listen. But basicly, people are worth being talked with. (But it is to be admitted: Mocking sometimes gives fun, too.)
- "Knowledge of man" is usually a need to judge people as quickly as possible, often in negative ways, in order not to go on looking curiously what they are really like. "Knowledge of man" is often a lock closing down our hearts. Why do we judge people? To protect ourselves? But what if the people have done us no harm? Let us talk with the people with open hearts and listen to them with interest what they have to tell us! So every human being can become an interesting adventure.
- Let us take efforts to use a nonviolent speech with the fewest possible projections. That means for example: not to say to a person: "You are difficult", that would mean, we would not be able to take responsibility for our difficulties. What we mean, sure is nothing but: "I have got difficulties with you." And this honest view makes solutions possible, the other view tends to make them impossible or at least unnecessarily difficult. If we want to solve problems, as a rule it does not help to add diversionarily: "Others have got similar difficulties with you." For like this we really say, we just do not want to solve the problems, but we are just heading to terrorize our partners in order to deal with our own disorientations. If we want to solve our difficulties, then it is only those that are of interest.
- When we have difficulties with a person and this person takes a step of good will towards us, we should not at all consider this a weakness to be taken advantage of, but as a strength. The attitude that strength is represented by a hard heart, by a need to run others down, sure is the cause of wars and many more problems on Earth. Let us rather rate people's strength by the way they are ready to show interest and respect for other people and their views!
- Part of nonviolence towards foreign peoples is not utter xenophobic clichés and prejudices without having had a close look at them. So by no means should we accuse any people on Earth for practicing cannibalism as long as we do not want to be accused for the same thing. Derogatory expressions like that of a "developing country" should also be avoided, what does not mean we should damn those who use them without reflecting them. But likewise the picture of the noble savage letting us expect a (naive) goodness we do not expect from ourselves, is violent in some way. Let us remember that others, if Papuans or Hopis, are as real humans as we are.
- Of course it is also important to speak clearly for nonviolence within political discussions. This is not always an easy thing to do. Armed violence, state violence, nuclear power ..., any violence is based on lust of power which results in powerlessness and suffering on the other side.
- If we want to admire people, then it is most constructive not to admire them for raising themselves above others, i. e. not for power, career and possessions. Let us rather admire people for values such as contentment, empathy, independence of material goods ... It is not a strength to defeat others while it is a strength to acknowledge others and recognize and esteem their very values. All people that flee into violence, are losers because they have fallen victims to destructive decoys. On the other hand, who refuses to submit himself to those decoys, who even deserts in case of war, is a real hero. So it is not the warriors who deserve to be honoured by monuments, but the deserters.
