Align: Subchapter III.
With the coming generation, education will become more closely aligned with cultivating intuitive decision- making. By incorporating a wide range of sources of knowledge and perspectives, a more holistic approach to education will synthesize old traditions with new capabilities to instill a greater sense of integrity and possibility into public and private institutions.
According to political scientist Erica Chenoweth at Harvard University, when just 3.5% of a population participates in cohesive non-violent activism, massive change occurs. The ability for relatively small groups to affect change through nonviolence reveals the true power of this approach.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
The world is full of good, decent people doing what is right when no one is looking. And those are not the stories that typically get attention on local or national news. It’s the tragedies and disasters that grab attention. Yet those events are outliers. Most of the time, people are working together. And we mustn’t forget that it only takes a small percent of a population to generate impressive outcomes.
Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, examined hundreds of nonviolent campaigns for change from the last 100 years, and found that, overall, nonviolent campaigns were twice as likely to succeed in achieving their goals as violent campaigns. Analysis regarding the results of violent force showed violence to effect change about a quarter of the times it was applied.28 This is a crucial reminder that most of the time the softer touch is the most effective means of movement.
One of the main advantages to nonviolence is its widespread accessibility. Nobody needs to take up arms, to be trained in combat, or get in physical shape for fighting. Nonviolence garners supporters and participants across all demographics, and can therefore also affect more sweeping change.
“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
Chenoweth’s work honors the victories of peaceful protests. One of the most influential moments of nonviolence is the example of how Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi led India to independence in 1947. A trained lawyer turned activist, Gandhi’s guiding principle was what he called satyagraha, a word derived from Sanskrit (satya: “truth”, āgraha: “insistence” or “holding firmly to”), meaning a holding onto truth, or truth force. In this specified form of political resistance, Gandhi advocated for India defining its own destiny, rather than being subject to oppressive and dehumanizing British colonial rule. In his book, Indian Home Rule, Gandhi promoted a self-sufficient citizen, able to source one’s own food, shelter, clothing, and not be subject to the taxes and over-ruling of racist foreign interests.
In 1930, Gandhi led a 24-day march over 240 miles to the coastal village of Dandi to pick up and eat the naturally occurring salt from their deposits in a show of political resistance to the British salt monopoly. Once Gandhi lifted a finger full of salt to his lips, he effectively broke the salt laws in bypassing any tax or payment to British control of the spice. This simple act set off a large-scale snowball effect of resistance as millions of Indians rallied against the British Raj salt laws, thus placing pressure on the ruling elite as never before experienced.
At the front lines of political resistance and change, Gandhi met many victories and setbacks along his fight for Indian sovereignty. Ultimately, the Indian Independence Act of 1947 constituted an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that granted India independence, which arrived in part due to Gandhi and his demonstration of nonviolent resistance.
On another continent, 8500 miles away and two decades later, Martin Luther King Jr. was interpreting satyagraha himself, this time for segregated America in his involvement with the Civil Rights Movement. Suffering beatings, imprisonment, and ultimately assassination, Dr. King’s long, difficult nonviolent fight for black equality in white America resulted in the Civil Rights Act, signed in 1964, which ended the policy of segregation.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” … “History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.” — Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 1963
The nonviolent movements described above occurred with the tremendous sacrifice of the individuals associated with these decades-long acts of resistance. These different, yet connected, chapters of history also depict a blueprint for how change occurs in the face of centuries-old oppression. In the end, the force of love and truth prevailed, as we believe it always will. Communities, companies, countries, and all individuals are well served to remember that peace is more effective than violence. With this awareness, we are all more incentivized to be respectful and principled when engaging conflict.
We believe that the key to unlocking a greater capacity for change in our personal patterns, and in terms of policy, comes from better understanding the underlying mechanisms for peace. From our earliest ages, we benefit from learning conflict resolution through means of empathy, shared resources, and common responsibility. Interpersonal problem-solving and diplomacy can be significantly improved with a common commitment to teaching peace in educational settings as well as workplaces. We wonder: What might the underlying mechanisms for peace be and how might they differentiate across different communities and cultures? Placing more thought into this kind of question will lead to a more balanced state of inter-personal, as well as geo-political, relationships.
