A Life Connected

Years ago I’d ask audiences, “Who thinks corporations have too much control over our governments, over our lives?” Maybe 1/2 would slowly raise their hands and I’d have to explain what I meant.

Today every hand in the room shoots up… and some people stand up and cheer!

“Why do these giant corporations have so much power?” I’d ask.

“They have all the money!” someone yells.

“And where do they get the money?”…

Silence.

“Oh… us.”

The state of the world isn’t being done TO; it’s being done BY us. We have the power to turn it around.  Consume consciously.  In every part of your life.  What you eat, buy, consume, read, watch…

The question is not, “Can ONE person really make a difference?”  You already ARE making a difference.  The question is, “What kind of difference do you want to make?”  Will you be part of the ongoing problem; or will you be part of the solution.  Yes, you matter.  The power is in your hands.

This is a short answer to a question sent to NonviolenceUnited.org (thank you for the question!)

Q: What is violence and what are some examples of “violence against Society?”

A: We are all connected.  More and more people are beginning to re-understand this interconnectedness – that our choices and actions affect not only our lives but the lives of others – even on the other side of the planet, even those we’ll never meet.  We are all connected.  violence, in a nutshell…is anything that works against that natural interconnectedness – it’s an expression of disconnection.

Martin Luther King, Jr. explained that “We are tied together in the single garment of destiny… and for some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.”  To reach our potential, we must be mutually supportive of one another.

And violence against society?  Ultimately, any form of violence works against society because it works to unravel that fabric of an interdependent community.  But, violence takes many forms.  We’re so immersed in outright physical violence (war, terrorism by the state and by individuals, domestic violence, child abuse, robbery, rape, murder, drug wars, and so much more) that sometimes we may not recognize the other rampant violence of racism, militarism, speciesism, poverty and materialism (and by this, I mean individual over-consumption as well as the corporatized propaganda and policy that drive it).  Paraphrasing Gandhi, when we use more than we need, we are stealing from someone else.

So, violence against society is basically “othering” within the community (world community or other smaller community).  It is the creating an “other” out of someone who is actuality a part of US, who we’re in reality connected to.  Othering is an irrational, unnecessary, and certainly hurtful belief that anyone in our world community (all humans and all non-human animals… and even nature itself) are somehow separate from ourselves.

Did I mention we’re all connected? :)

All one,

:) m

OK, this posting is way too long, I know.  And I’m sorry… kinda.  But I’ve had so many questions flooding in because of the Occupy Movement — what I like to call “The Awakening” :)  I hope you can glean good stuff and send it on to your friends and family in the Movement.  As always, we’re here to help if we can, so give a holler.

…………

To my friends, sisters, and brothers stirred to action by the #Occupy Movement, first, thank you!  Just as your heart and mind has been opened to the possibilities of a just world, you are awakening the hearts and minds of millions, possibly billions.  This is no small feat and no small Movement.

Right now, the focus is on those in the action in the streets – this is after all much easier for the public to wrap its collective mind around.  It’s much easier to package by the media.  It’s also much easier to marginalize, but we’ll get to that…

Please realize that the action in the streets is ONLY A SMALL PART of the strategy — this small part is important, but it is not the Movement.  Many of you are asking, “Strategy?  What strategy?”   That is the purpose of this message.  How do we each fit into this growing Movement?  And why MUST Nonviolence be its foundation.

Rather than rambling on and losing you, I’ve tried to answer a few questions posed by friends to me and to NonviolenceUnited.org.  I hope this helps.  And I hope it is received in the spirit in which it is offered.

Q: If Nonviolence works, why haven’t I heard of it?
A: YES! Why don’t we hear of the triumphs of Nonviolence — the “people power” that tumbles oppressive regimes? Why don’t we hear about the “Velvet Revolution” in Czechoslovakia, the “Orange Revolution” in the Ukraine, the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the dethroning of oppression in the Philippines, in East Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, in Latin America?

All over the world lasting, positive change is the result not of trillion-dollar armies, but of Nonviolent people power. Why don’t we hear about these remarkable revolutions? The information blackout is no accident. Perhaps we don’t learn about Nonviolent revolution because… it works!

Nonviolent people power can change the world. That’s a scary thought for the miniscule minority hanging on for dear life to the helm of power.

For a group to remain in power without representing the true will of the people, they must maintain power by manipulation and by force — military force — a worldwide police state. This is why some of the most out-of-touch and top-heavy governments in the world have to maintain and use an over-the-top show of force.

What if the secret got out? What if people knew that Nonviolence works? What if they knew that they didn’t need big muscles and guns and the inhumanity to use them? What if people stopped giving their power away to the oppressor? What if the power suddenly shifted back to the people?

It would mean the creation of a world reflective of the values of the people. And for the most part, those values (truth, justice, freedom, kindness, compassion, goodwill toward people, toward the planet and toward animals, etc.) are good. What an amazing world this could be… and it could happen practically overnight if we organized around our values.

Q: But we need a “diversity of tactics” to be effective.
A: There may be some people who are still skeptical of Nonviolence. They may not yet understand its power or its core principle that a connected society is a just society. Maybe they think violence might hurry things along. Some may even think, “Sure, you do Nonviolence and I’ll do violence… together we’d be a great team because people will be afraid of me and then they’ll negotiate with you.”

It doesn’t work that way. When you are perceived as part of a movement and you are violent, the movement is perceived as violent regardless of the ratio of violence to Nonviolence.

Think of Nonviolence like a glass of clean water. Even one drop of blood (violence) makes all of the water bloody. Once you bloody the water it takes enormous amounts of clean water without any additional blood to hope to ever again have clean water. And even then, it will never be completely clean.

There are many reasons why violence doesn’t work in the long run:

• Nonviolence works toward a shared community and reconciliation; violence does not support that goal. violence always has a loser who will feel alienated and seek to overturn the other at the earliest opportunity.
• Nonviolence works to win the support of people and society; we want people to join us. Whereas violence has the opposite effect — most people don’t want violence in their lives.
• A conflict between a Nonviolent group and a violent group is a moral argument; if the Nonviolent group can be provoked into using violence, the violent group wins.
• Nonviolence groups are often deliberately infiltrated by members of the violent opposition hoping to dismantle the movement. It is often easy to recognize these infiltrators because they will advocate and provoke violence pretending that violence will lead to justice, but knowing it will cause society to turn against the movement. When we practice Nonviolence, we quickly expose our opponents.
• violence is easier, but it makes everyone’s job harder.
• violence simply perpetuates separation and disconnection — it uses the very element we hope to eradicate.
• Nonviolence promotes love and compassion; violence promotes hate and fear.

Q: Why should we be in the streets?  What purpose does it serve?  How will this bring about change?
A: If you’ve read NonviolenceUnited.org in the past, you know that protests are laughed at and ignored by the power elite.  They are usually short-lived.  They are usually easily marginalized by the media (by downplaying the numbers of people involved, calling us just a bunch of “hippies,” presenting a “fair and balanced” alternative viewpoint… you know the “news” stories I’m talking about).  Street protests usually garner little attention and little support and usually die quickly.

Usually. This Movement is not “usual.”  But it’s not that the numbers of people in the streets will make a difference to the broken corporate-political machine, it’s that people are awakening and connecting to other people.  THIS is the purpose of the street protests.  CONNECTING one another, awakening others to the plight and possibilities, and forming a unified voice, philosophy, and goal.

Q: What is the goal?
A: The goal as I see it is to create a whole new way of doing things – a shift to collaborative justice and sharing of resources.  An equal opportunity for life and liberty by all – humans, the planet, and non-human animals.  We are ALL in this together.  We are all joyfully and tearfully intertwined in the struggle of life.  This is a PARADIGM SHIFT.  The current paradigm (way of doing things without even thinking about it) is one of exploitation – use up everyone and everything as long as *you* the individual (or individual corporation) succeed financially.  Ethics be damned.  Dollars be worshiped.

The NEW paradigm is one of respecting that we are ALL ONE.  There is no you or me, there is only we.  And when I say “we,” I am including all people, all animals, all of the natural world.  We are all connected.  I will help you without concern for myself.  This is a system of mutual support instead of never-ending and ultimately lose-lose competition.

Q: What does Nonviolence have to do with any of this?
A: Everything! We are all connected.  I hope I’ve established this – if you pollute the air/water on this side of the planet, you pollute the air/water on that side.  If you use more than your share, you’re stealing from others (people, planet, animals) and from future generations.  We are all one.  The process of protecting this interconnection is Nonviolence.  The process of tearing apart or ignoring this interconnection is violence.

violence can come in so many forms – dropping bombs from 15,000 feet on our brothers and sisters, pouring chemicals on our food and into our water, overusing resources, wasting resources and ignoring our sense of compassion and decency by raising animals as food, and even seemingly innocuous things like lies by the media and by your governments all served up to disconnect you… from yourself, from your own values, and from each other (“you’re a democrat, you’re a republican, you’re middle class, you’re lower class, you’re that race, you’re that race… now fight it out!”).  It’s craziness.  It’s purposeful disconnection, a misconnection to perpetuate the current paradigm – violence.

Q: We want to fight back… “they” started it.
A: You ARE fighting back. Nonviolence IS NOT INACTION.  It is ACTION!  The only reason you’re being attacked is because you are being successful.  Be creative, be resourceful, be unyielding in your Nonviolence.  You WILL be provoked by the State and by provocateurs with violence in an attempt to have you react with violence; because in a violent interaction the State always wins in the eyes of the general public (no matter how just the cause).  We are a fearful human animal and police are still seen by most as protectors.  Remember the police are YOU.  They are victims of this same system of violence.  Yes, it seems like those individual police are out to get you, but fighting back with violence justifies the State violence, NOT your violence (in the eyes of the State, of the police, and of the general public).

Q: Is destruction of property really violence?
A: It doesn’t matter what I think (wait, let me explain!).  What matters is that the GENERAL PUBLIC sees destruction of property as violence! There are two points to be made about destruction of property during social activism. One point has to do with the definition Nonviolence.  The other point, and more importantly for activists, is one of strategy.

First, defining Nonviolence (as a philosophy).  A foundational tenet of Nonviolence is that we are all connected.  Nonviolence is the active support and protection of this interconnection.  Nonviolence is active, powerful, and deliberate.  Nonviolence works toward building a society where, while we will still disagree and discuss, we will all live and work together in mutual support and respect and a shared understanding.  Nonviolence is not separate from its goal; Nonviolent acts are the building blocks – the ends ARE the means.  So, while you may still believe destruction of property is not “violent,” it is NOT “Nonviolence.” In other words, “not violent” is not the same as “Nonviolence.”

OK, enough philosophy — pragmatically why does this matter?
Most importantly for this message of Nonviolence is STRATEGY:

A successful social Movement (like Occupy) relies upon achieving increased public support if we are to reach our goal of a shift in social culture. When we do Nonviolent actions, we hope to ENCOURAGE MORE AND MORE PEOPLE TO JOIN US!  Not run away or recoil in fear.

When it comes to strategic Nonviolence, what’s more important than what the activists think is what the general public thinks!  Property destruction, regardless of how any activist might view it, is NOT generally perceived by the public as something worth supporting or being a part of (do they want to join us?!).  I am NOT saying this is necessarily legitimate; I AM saying it is fundamental to consider strategy.  Property destruction will most likely NOT bring the masses into the movement and it may even scare most people away — ultimately lending support to the State to “come protect the people.”

Think strategically when planning social actions!

Q: The police action surprised us… anyone would’ve responded in the same way we did (with violence).
A: Surprised you?!  You were unprepared?  You didn’t EXPECT police brutality?  Really?  I’ll say it again, YOU WILL BE PROVOKED BY VIOLENCE.  You are battling the most violent system in the history of violent systems.  If you for one minute think you are NOT going to be confronted with violence by the most violent system… well, we’ve got to be smarter than that.

In fact, not to scare you but to invite resolve, the more successful the Movement becomes, the MORE violence we are going to see.  We must make sure it is one-sided.  We must refuse to play the deadly game that perpetuates the current system.  The current system will not stop providing and provoking violence out of good conscience.  Or even out of bad conscience.  violence is just what this system “lives on” — it’s its whole reason for being.  It’s not unimaginable that before this is over, many innocent lives will be taken.  Protesters will be killed.  The oppressor is not about to hand over power – until the employees of the oppressor realize that they are part of the problem, part of the oppression, and they refuse to contribute any longer.  Then the battle will be won.

Surprised you?!  We have to prepare.  We can only react appropriately and powerfully when we are prepared (in our hearts and in our heads) until Nonviolence becomes the guiding principle of everything we do.  We need to take personal responsibility to train ourselves and to train/inform others.  We NEED immediate and effective Nonviolence education/training; we need a deeper understanding and commitment (see www.NonviolenceUnited.org); we need Nonviolence experts on hand day and night; we need Nonviolence to become the living mantra of every single person in the streets.  When Nonviolence moves from being only a strategy to being our life commitment — THAT is the paradigm shift!

Q: (related to the above) To heck with the idea that “the police are part of the 99%” — they should renounce their role, quit their jobs, and take up (Nonviolent) arms with us!
A: What this statement/question is missing is the understanding that the police are people caught up in the broken system and trained under the current paradigm.  Many police personnel may truly want to protect the public and have been lead to believe that this is the best way to do that.

Just as in every confrontation, we cannot assume that those who attack us necessarily have all the information.  In fact, they don’t or they wouldn’t be doing what they are doing (protecting the system rather than the people).  They are not doing you harm because they hate you or because they are inherently bad people or drones of the system.  They are a product of a violent sub-culture within the most violent culture the world has ever seen.  That any of them (many? all?) can be reached is a testament to Nonviolence and human decency.

Think of them as students (to you teachers out there).  It’s not their fault that they don’t yet understand.  No, the responsibility is on us to TEACH THEM, not to give up on them.  See everyone, even those attacking you as your family — would you strike back, try to hurt, and even kill your family or loved one?  Chances are you’d first try to change their minds and win them to your way of seeing things.  Seeing police as separate from you and as “the enemy” is another form of dehumanization — a disconnection that is exactly a part of what we are fighting against.

Beyond that, if you can’t find it in your heart just yet to see the police personnel as people with individual lives and reachable hearts, at least CONSIDER STRATEGY!  If you fight and hurt a police officer, no matter how in the right you may think you are, you WILL LOSE in the eyes of the general public.  You WILL lose.  You will also “legitimize” in the eyes of the public any further violence against you and you fellow Nonviolent revolutionaries.  You, we, the world, every living being on the planet (even the planet!) needs you to be strong enough to recognize the strength of Nonviolence as a strategy and justice for all as our goal.

Q: OK, you say being in the streets is ONE PART of the Movement. What else can/should be done?
A: I’ve said this before at NonviolenceUnited.org, so please explore more there (and/or see links below) – we’re here to help:

THIS IS A CONSUMER REVOLUTION.  The state of the world is not being done TO us; it is being done BY us.  The solution isn’t outside us, it isn’t in the next political savior, it isn’t on Wall Street.  Every consumer choices EACH of us made in the past built the world we live in today; WE put those in power who are in power today.  WE polluted, we enslaved, we killed, WE paid for it all.  This isn’t about evil corporations, it’s about UNTHINKING CONSUMERISM.

NOW, every single choice from this moment forward will build the world of tomorrow.  SHIFT THAT POWER!  If you consume consciously only things that are aligned with your values of KINDNESS, JUSTICE, and COMPASSION… THAT is the world you will build.  If not, expect more of the same — a world out of control, twisted against everything we stand for.  This is our great power; this is our great responsibility.

Recognize that YOU already have the power.  YOU always have.  Politicians aren’t going to change that.  Corporations aren’t going to change that.  YOU matter and YOU make a difference.

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT TO GRASP because THIS is the Movement.  Everyone, every single human being is a consumer.  I don’t mean “shop till you drop” consumption (although many are dropping because of our consumption).  I mean we must consume (eat, drink, dress ourselves, find shelter, etc.) to survive.  Those simple consumer choices are NOT SO SIMPLE and they are not personal choices — every choice you make has an impact on the world around you, on everyone, on everything.  We’ve been making unthinking consumer choice through:

• our food choices (wasting resources, killing animals, polluting/destroying the planet, slave labor)
• clothing (supporting slavery and prison labor, polluting, often killing animals)
• shelter (destroying the planet, using non-renewable resources, stealing from future generations)

And the rest is just stuff we don’t even NEED!  What were we thinking?  Answer: we weren’t.  Well, now we are!  Now we must!

If you’re not in the streets protesting (and even if you are), you’re still a part of this movement.  EVERY human being is part of this Movement.  Every single consumer/human is building toward a new system of justice or perpetuating the system of exploitation.  It really is that simple.

EVERY consumer choice you make, EVERYTHING you buy or decide NOT to buy is either part of the solution or part of the problem.  It’s part of the collaborative NEW PARADIGM or it is in direct support of the violent exploitative paradigm you are actively fighting against.

“Talk is cheap; it’s how we organize and live our lives that says what we stand for.” - Cesar Chavez

Even if you’re in the streets “fighting for what’s right” — if you’re buying/wearing your Nike slave labor chemical soaked animal skin shoes, eating a McDonald’s burger (or any animal product), snacking on Hershey’s slave labor cow’s milk chocolate, driving your new gas-powered car, and wondering how your 401k might be doing rather than WHAT it is doing (not even knowing what you’re invested in)… are you really part of the solution?  Are you really part of the new paradigm?  Or are you just wasting your time — nailing one foot to the floor before running the marathon.

THIS is the Movement.  It’s a conscious CONSUMER REVOLUTION.  It is a movement of personal responsibility, of personal conscience, of BRAVERY to step out of the confines and comfort of the way it has been into the light of how it could be.

Q: Don’t we need a leader to be successful?  Where’s our leader?
A: If you’re interested look up “autonomous social movements” — that’s what we’re looking at — an emerging new social movement led by an idea rather than by a leader.  There are leadership-centered groups (SCLC with Marting Luther King, Jr. in the 60s is an example) and there is group-centered or idea/ideal-centered leadership (SNCC in the 60s or even the feminist movement, environmental movement, or animal liberation movement today are examples).

The idea/ideal-centered Movements are actually more powerful in the long run — idea/ideal-centered movements call on individual participants to be personally responsible.  Also it becomes more and more difficult for the opposition to shoot the messenger (literally and figuratively) when EVERYONE is a leader.

The “leader” (the idea or ideal we’re working toward — collaborative justice) is the leader.  It’s in our heads and in our hearts.  It cannot be assassinated.  The Occupy Movement has some work to do — in that the on-the-ground protests are such a small part of the overall movement.  BUT the power will come when everyone, everyone realizes that EACH OF US HAS BEEN PART OF THE PROBLEM and EACH OF US CAN BE PART OF THE SOLUTION.

Our dollars (in the form our everyday consumer choices — from the banks we use, to credit cards, to every little thing we consume, and even our tax dollars) are what built the world we live in today.  And each of our choices from this moment forward will build the world of tomorrow.  Live and make choices aligned with your values and you change the world.  If you don’t live your life connected and make uninformed consumer choices, you STILL change the world, but instead it will continue to deteriorate and feel disconnected from your shared values of justice, kindness, and compassion for other people, for the planet, and for non-human animals.

Q: But Nonviolence is confusing, hard, I don’t get it, etc.
A: I understand the desire to react with violence.  Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized that violence is the voice of the unheard.  When people are frustrated they sometimes turn to violence.  I’m here to tell you that YOU ARE HEARD!  And that there are better, more effective ways to MAKE YOURSELF HEARD (read more about every dollar is a vote http://www.nonviolenceunited.org/tag/every-dollar-is-a-vote/).

Nonviolence, ACTIVE Nonviolence is like a physical and mental martial art.  You’re going to be exercising emotions and courage you never knew you had.  Your going to be studying strategic theory.  And it’s gonna hurt.  Just like starting a new exercise routine.  It’s going to be HARD!  You’re going to fall flat on your face a few times.  You’re going to feel like giving up.  I guarantee you’ll feel this way… until, all of a sudden, you make it to the top of the hill – oh, the things you’ll see!!!!

Feeling interconnected with everyone and everything – you will be the most powerful, the most potent, the most alive you have ever felt.  Everything you do, every breath you take is part of the larger whole.  YOU are the Movement.  Everyone is YOU and YOU are everyone (every person, every animal, every living thing).

This isn’t new-agey drivel, it is pragmatic fact.  We are all connected and what YOU do matters.  It always has; and it always will.

Don’t give in to the temptation to use violence for its ease, for its convenience, for its relative comfort, or because you understand it.  The inner fight will be worth it and bringing that inner fight to the streets in the form of direct Nonviolent ACTION… this is a Movement the likes of which the world has never seen… and desperately needs.

For other comments hopefully helpful to the Occupy Movement, see:

http://www.nonviolenceunited.org/2011/10/occupy-staying-aware-staying-strong-and-seeing-through-the-smoke/

http://www.nonviolenceunited.org/2011/10/personal-responsibility-personal-power-taking-responsibility-for-the-state-of-the-world/

http://www.nonviolenceunited.org/2011/10/protest-is-dead/

THANK YOU for all that you do!

All one,

:) N!

U.S. President Barack Obama last night on the Leno Show said about the #Occupy Movement that, “people are frustrated” and he put the responsibility on the “leaders” of industry to show the way. And he suggested (as does everyone at the helm of the broken system) that all we have to do is buy more stuff and give people jobs so they can buy more stuff, stay busy, buy more stuff, stay busy, buy more stuff…

He just doesn’t get it (on so many levels) — or more likely, he *does* get it and is laying groundwork for the broken machine. It’s not that people are “frustrated” — it’s that people have AWAKENED. “Frustrated,” by definition, implies that people are feeling angry because of their inability to change or achieve something. People aren’t frustrated; they know how to make the change — stop giving money/power to the broken system — and they’re making it happen.

And who needs “leaders” to show us the way? We KNOW the way; and it ain’t in their direction. We are all, each of us, leaders. The power is in OUR hands.

And “buy more stuff”?! Really?! That’s what got us in this mess — unthinking consumption (including war — yes it’s a money making machine to feed the broken system) cheered on by corporate politicians.

The broken system is starting to fight back. Look out. It’s confused by Nonviolence and will lash out in the only way it knows how — with violence and purposeful disconnection (the lifeblood of violence) in order to win back public support and consumer confidence (another way of saying getting people to buy more stuff — which I think is actually a sign of less confidence).

STAY AWARE, stay strong, and stay *actively* Nonviolent. Look to see more provocation in the streets.  Occupiers WILL be provoked.  There WILL be agent provocateurs in the crowds (pretending to be an Occupier, but really being an agent of the oppressor).  This is a very common tactic used to get the Movement, any successful Nonviolent movement, to appear violent so the public attention will be distracted from the purpose of the protest and so public support turns to the oppressor.  Don’t give in!.  Be aware of much less accurate media coverage, and for more media attention to fake news stories from around the world to keep you distracted and escalated wars, etc. to drum up patriotism. Stick to unfiltered news sources.

What we need is a whole new way of thinking, a whole new way of doing, a whole new way of living. Live a life connected. Live your values, change the world.

As always, if you have any questions, we’re here to help if we can.

All one,

www.NonviolenceUnited.org

War doesn’t exist because of some moral dilemma; it exists because there is money to be made. The use and abuse of helpless animals for human consumption (animal agribusiness) doesn’t exist because of some moral dilemma or even because we have to eat them; the killing happens because there is money to be made.

Oil disasters, global warming, an unthinking Wall Street, pollution, slave/prison labor, the working poor, world hunger – these don’t exist by accident; they exist because there is money to be made. Wall Street gives new meaning to the idea of “making a killing.”

How do we stop it? Stop supporting it! Stop paying for it!  It exists because WE, each of us, helped pay for and build it.  WE, each of us, with every single consumer choice (using a credit card, using a corporate bank, the companies and products we buy/consume/support, the media we “consume” by paying attention to it, even the war tax we pay to our federal government without holding it accountable) — WE built the world we live in today.  WE did this!  And WE, with every choice from this moment forward, will build the world of tomorrow.

The good news is that WE (YOU!) can turn it around virtually overnight. There is humility and a great challenge in realizing that WE did this to ourselves and that each of us has the power to put a stop to it, to build a better world.

Take personal responsibility — consume less, and when you do consume (we must to survive) do it consciously, in an informed way, and in a way that is aligned with our shared values of justice, kindness, and compassion for other people, for the planet, and for the animals.

Live your values, change the world!

There’s seems to be a hunger for a social revolution in the air.  Not a violent revolution, but a revolution of values, a call to the corporate world that enough is enough.

With that in mind, I’m reposting something I put up a few years ago along with the text to our “A Life Connected” brochure here.  While protest can be powerful and has its place, personal protest (in the form of taking responsibility for the role each of us plays in building the world in which we live) will be the fuel of the revolution.  The Nonviolence revolution.

From NonviolenceUnited.org 2007:

Click the image to read Tom Tomorrow’s cartoon.

There was a time when a half a million people demonstrating in the streets would have an impact on policy and policy makers. That time seems to have passed.

Traditional Nonviolent tactics have been studied and marginalized by our opponents. Our marches and speeches are ignored by the corporate-owned media. Our letters are ignored and our emails are deleted. We are even forced into “free speech zones” where we can be more easily ignored and controlled.

But Nonviolence isn’t just holding up signs in protest on weekends and then going back to life as usual. In order for Nonviolence to work, it must have strategy, planning and a real effect that will bring about change in the opponent or replace the unjust system entirely.

Nonviolence United advocates a form of Nonviolence that is built on strategy and has a direct effect regardless of the opponent’s conscience or their willingness to change — Nonviolence as a way of life. We can build a world reflective of our values only when we consume consciously and live our lives consistently with our values. It’s that simple.

We’re not saying demonstrations and protests don’t have a place. We’re simply suggesting more thought to what their place is in a complete strategy. We thought the cover story of the Utne Reader “Protest Is Dead. Long Live Protest.” did a good job explaining this point.

For those of you who want to learn more about taking personal responsibility for the world we, each of us, is helping create, please read our brochure “A Life Connected” available online here or read the text here (below).

>>>>>>>

Live A Life Connected!
A lot of us are asking the question, “What should I do with my life?” Perhaps the answer won’t be found in one great thing… but in all the little things. Your everyday choices define who you are, what you stand for, and the world you want to see.

Each of our choices in the past built the world we live in today. And each of our choices from this moment forward will build the world of tomorrow. If you’re not living your values, whose life are you living… and what kind of world are you building?

Every Dollar Is A Vote.
Every dollar you spend or choose not to spend is a vote. You voted yesterday. You’ll vote today — maybe hundreds of times. Will you vote for a world that respects human rights, protects the environment, and has compassion for animals? Or will you make choices that build a world you really don’t believe in?

Your consumer choices act as the conscience of big business. Businesses have grown so disconnected that they often only respond to money, not to moral principles. They no longer hear our pleas for kindness and ethics. If profits increase even though a company is spewing toxic fumes, enslaving people, or hurting animals, the company still believes it is doing something right.

If your words which plead for humanity are drowned out by the clamor of your coins, you‘re saying to unthinking businesses, “Yes, keep doing what you’re doing… and do it in my name!”

You help build a world reflective of our shared values of justice, kindness, and compassion when your everyday choices are aligned with those values.

It’s that simple.

“Talk is cheap… it’s how we organize and live our lives that tells what we believe in.”
– Cesar Chavez

Strategy for a Better World.
Traditional Nonviolence tactics have been studied and made less effective by those who control by force, disconnection, and violence. Marches and speeches are ignored by corporate-owned media. Letters from concerned citizens are disregarded and their emails deleted. People are even forced into “free speech zones” where they can be more easily ignored and controlled.

It’s time to live smarter. A Life Connected is a method of Active Nonviolence built on strategy. It has a direct effect regardless of an “opponent’s” conscience or willingness to change. It cannot be stopped by force. It builds rather than tears down. It replaces hate with love. And it is available to everyone.

All of us and everything are connected. Nonviolence offers you a way to live your life sincerely building, supporting, and defending these connections. Connect to your own values. Connect to other people, to the planet, and to animals. Connect to how your choices impact the world around you.

How To Live A Life Connected.
You were born with values that connect you to humanity and to the world in which you live — values of justice, kindness, and compassion. Reconnect to who you truly are. Put your compassion into action and make our world a better place.

1. Connect with yourself. Become re-aware of your moral values.
2. Connect with others. Become aware of how your everyday choices impact other people, the planet, and animals.
3. Connect your choices to your values. If your choices are truly aligned with your values, stay on that path and find even more connections. If your choices are unaligned, make new, better, and more connected choices.

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
Mohandas Gandhi

Build A Better World With Connected Choices.

Simplify. Imagine a world of billions of people living exactly as you do. Would it truly be fair and sustainable? Live simply so that others may simply live.

Fair Trade. Fair Trade ensures that farmers, artisans, and other producers get a fair price for their goods. It guarantees a living wage, encourages environmental responsibility, and reinvests in communities. Look for Fair Trade certified products.

Organic. Protect people, the planet, and precious wildlife. Organic products ensure that chemicals are not sprayed and dumped on farm workers, on the land, and in our water. Pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms. Promote health — including your own. And save energy. In the United States, more energy is used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate, and harvest all the crops.

Fair Labor. Sweatshops, child labor, and slave labor are a growing problem even in the United States. Clothing and other products like coffee, fruit, chocolate, and flowers are often produced under brutal working conditions. The cheapest products often come with the greatest human costs. Get to know more about how the products you purchase are made and make the most humane choices.

Renewable Energy. Wars are fought for resources. To build a world that is safe and secure and to preserve the planet for future generations, choose solar, wind, wave, geothermal, biofuels, and other renewable choices. If these choices aren’t readily available to you, continue to conserve energy and consider buying renewable energy credits.

Car-Free. Take a bus, ride a train, or get on the subway. Better yet walk or ride a bike. Use your own energy to get around.

Local. Be the champion of local businesses. Buying local supports small businesses, creates local jobs, and keeps more money in your community. And when you support a local company, you then have the opportunity to make sure they treat people, the planet, and animals responsibly. Unlike giant national retailers, they are members of your community.

Vegan. Vegan foods are plant-based and contain no animal products (meat, eggs, and dairy). The reasons more and more people are choosing a Vegan lifestyle include bettering human health, ending farm worker and factory worker exploitation, ending industrial racism, saving family farms, protecting the environment, ending climate change, ending world hunger, using energy and resources more wisely, conserving land, protecting wildlife, preserving our oceans and waterways, and being kind to animals. A Vegan lifestyle expands your circle of compassion to include those who rely entirely on your kindness. Vegan choices are some of the most far-reaching personal, practical, and ethical choices you can make.

Recycled. Remember, when you throw something away, there is no such thing as “away.” Use less, reuse, and recycle. Choose used and recycled products whenever possible.

Tree-Free. Choose recycled lumber and paper products, consume products with less packaging, recycle what you use, and consider tree-free papers like kenaf and hemp.

Cruelty-Free. We have the compassion, intelligence and technology to move beyond hurting animals for the production of food, clothing, cleaning products, and personal products. Industries that make a profit by hurting others do so with the consent and support of those who buy their products. Make the kind choice, buy cruelty-free.

Yes, YOU Make A Difference!

The question isn’t whether or not you, one person, can make a difference. You are making a difference. But what kind of difference are you making? What kind of difference do you want to make?

The urgent problems that people, the planet and animals are facing stem from people forgetting who they truly are. A Life Connected works as a compass to help you be who you truly are, remember your values, choose your path, and live in a reconnected way.

Being aware and aligned with your values makes you conscious, complete, and more powerful. Millions of people are reconnecting to create a remarkable movement the likes of which the world has never seen — a movement led by the individual, by the people… by YOU!

About NonviolenceUnited.org. Building A Better World.
We envision a world driven by the innate goodness of people and their values of justice, kindness, and compassion for other people, for the planet, and for animals.

Our focus is reminding everyone that we are all connected and encouraging individuals to align their everyday choices with their values — to live A Life Connected.

It’s a win-win way of living. Build a better life for you… and a better world for everyone.

Learn more and get connected at NonviolenceUnited.org.

“Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.”
- Henry David Thoreau

Pass it on. Share the joy of living A Life Connected.

This is a nice introduction to one of the best teachers of interconnection. Thich Nhat Hanh’s words and work have influenced our work greatly.
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Nonviolence leader Cesar Chavez was born near Yuma, Arizona, USA on March 31, 1927. This month would have marked his 84th birthday. He died in his sleep in 1993.

We honor Cesar Chavez because he bridged social justice mountaintops — dedicating his life to fight for the rights of people, for the preservation of the environment and for protection of animals. He recognized that the social justice movements are not separate but intimately tied to one another. He often remarked how violence is cut from the same cloth — whether it is violence against people, violence against the environment, or violence against animals.

Cesar advocated Nonviolence as a strategy and as a way of life. He encouraged people to stop talking and start walking — don’t wait! — when you see injustice, put Nonviolence into action.

He was one of the first to remind us to live our lives consistently with our values. This includes consuming consciously — buying only fair-labor products, environmentally friendly products, and animal-friendly products (Cesar was vegan).

The future won’t be just and bright simply because we want it badly enough. We must take personal action and responsibility to do the right thing. Cesar put it this way,

“Talk is cheap… it’s how we organize and live our lives everyday that tells what we believe in.”

Celebrate Cesar Chavez’s birthday with us by taking action — connect with the impact of your everyday choices. Every dollar you spend is a vote. Every time you choose not to buy something it’s a vote. You voted yesterday. You’ll vote today — maybe hundreds of times. Did you vote for human rights, the environment, compassion for animals, and Nonviolence? Or did you vote for greed, environmental destruction, cruelty, and violence? Are your choices in line with your values?

Take the opportunity to expand your circle of compassion and learn more about a social justice issue you may not visit regularly. Ask your new friends on those social justice mountaintops what you can do to support them — today and everyday. Yes, we can keep on talking, but let’s start walking our talk, too.

Happy birthday, Cesar!

We’ve posted this in the past, but sometimes it helps me to re-read it:

http://www.nonviolenceunited.org/2009/10/i-want-to-know-what-love-is/

:) m

When I first started studying Nonviolence many years ago, I found that there were two ways of putting Nonviolence into action:

1. Nonviolence as a way of life. This is called “principled Nonviolence” — working to align one’s life with principles of Nonviolence like collaboration, kindness, and compassion

and/or

2. Nonviolence as a strategy. This is called “strategic Nonviolence” and includes actions like civil disobedience, etc.  In using Nonviolence as a strategy, one may or may not feel “Nonviolent” in one’s heart, and one may or may not live Nonviolence in one’s everyday life, but one understand that to advance a particular cause, Nonviolence makes strategic sense.

There are not only two distinct ways of putting Nonviolence into action, the people who study and promote Nonviolence tend to divide themselves into one strategy over the other. There are of course notable exceptions like Mohandas Ghandi, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King, Jr. who tried to combine the two. And, in fact, Ghandi saw as his great failure his focus on Nonviolence as a tactic rather than as a way of life¹. But, as far as I’ve been able to find, no one leader or movement has successfully combined the two methods of Nonviolence for the masses… until now.  Enter Nonviolence United.

When founding Nonviolence United I was impressed by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s approach to problems.  He tended to look at the elements of the different potential solutions to a problem.  But he didn’t just choose the one solution which he thought was superior to the other; rather, he tended to “cherry pick” the best elements from two conflicting solutions and put those pieces together to create a solution more powerful than either of the solutions would have been on their own.  (This is a constant upward spiral process of improvement is called “the dialectic” for those who want to delve more deeply).

Excited by this “dialectic” approach, it dawned on me that, yes, Nonviolence can be approached as a way of life… and, yes, Nonviolence can be approached as a strategy.  But these are not separate solutions nor are either of these the best solution.  In order to create long-lasting, far-reaching, positive social change, Nonviolence as a way of life IS the strategy.  Marrying the two strategies, we create an even more powerful strategy – one that can build a positive social movement the likes of which the world has never seen… and desperately needs.

This became the foundational tenet of Nonviolence United: Encouraging individuals (the living building blocks of society, after all) to LIVE Nonviolence as a real and effective STRATEGY for social change.  Live “A Life Connected.”

Traditional tactics of “strategic” Nonviolence have been studied and systematically marginalized by those who control by force, disconnection, and violence:

Our marches and speeches are ignored and laughed off the world stage by the corporate-owned media. Our letters are ignored and our emails are deleted.  We are even forced into “free speech zones” where we can be more easily ignored and controlled.

But Nonviolence isn’t just holding up signs in protest on weekends and then going back to life as usual. In order for Nonviolence to work, it must have strategy, it must have planning, and it must play a real and effective role in replacing the unjust system.

This isn’t about working harder; it’s about living smarter.

Nonviolence United is calling on each of us to live “A Life Connected.”  This is a form of Nonviolence that is built on strategy and has a direct effect regardless of an opponent’s (or a system’s) conscience or their willingness to change. These connected choices are our values IN ACTION.

We actively are building the future.  Every day with every choice we are having an impact on the world around us and upon the future.  The question isn’t can we make a difference; the question is what kind of difference do we want to make… what kind of future do we want to build?

We can choose to live connected and consciously build a future based on our values. OR we can continue to live disconnected and build an unthinking, unconscious future – a future that goes against our own values, a future of violence, pollution, systems of cruelty, war, profit over compassion – a future we’ll continue to fight against.  If this sounds familiar, it is because this is the unthinking present/future we’ve been building through our unthinking choices of the past. To not choose is to choose – if we don’t live Nonviolence as a way of life, we’ll build a violent, disconnected future.

Nonviolence United is breaking the dominance paradigm by reconnecting the disconnected.  We’re starting with the building blocks of our social existence — our everyday choices.  And, on an even more fundamental level, to help ensure that we make connected choices, we are starting by awakening people of their own values.

Most people want clean air and clean water; they want to be kind to other people; they want to be kind to animals. Most of us care about the future and want to do our best to not cause pain and suffering to others yet to come.  But, we’ve forgotten that our simple everyday choices have a profound affect on others. We’ve forgotten that we are all interconnected. We’ve forgotten that each of us OWNS THE POWER to do the right thing.  By awakening and remembering this, by re-owning our own personal power and responsibility, by recognizing that what we do matters, that WE MATTER – we can, each of us, build a better lives for ourselves… and a better world for everyone.

Please remember, the state of the world isn’t something being done TO; it is being done BY us.  We will build a world reflective of our shared values of kindness, justice, and compassion ONLY when we make choices aligned with those values.

The formula is pretty simple:

To live “A Life Connected”…

1. Become re-aware of your values.
2. Become aware of how your choices impact other people, the planet, and animals.
3. Align your choices to your values.

Consume consciously. Live “A Life Connected”. When we do, we are part of a conscious and creative future.  And, when we do, we actively dismantle and repair and unconscious disconnected past.

Live your values, change the world. It’s that simple.

All one,

:) m