A Life Connected

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 sometimes 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 sometimes 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.

Not only are there 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 it as a great failure of his to focus on Nonviolence as a tactic rather than as a way of life¹ – because what he really hoped for were the longer-lasting, more far-reaching effects of Nonviolence as a way of life rather than the short-lived shifts in power.

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 studying to help establish Nonviolence United, I was impressed by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s approach to problems.  He tended to look at the elements of different potential solutions to a problem.  Then, he would not simply choose one solution which he thought was superior to the other; rather, he tended to “cherry pick” the best elements from two conflicting solutions.  He would put pieces together to create a solution more powerful than either of the solutions would have been on their own.  Sometimes evaluating conflicting solutions would lead to an even better solution.  This 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’ve 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.

Living A Life Connected: How to live Nonviolence as a way of life.
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

It’s that voting time of year.  Headlines about which politicians are promising this or that. Yards littered with political signs — vote “Yes!” on this and “No!” on that. We get anxious because a political loss could have far-reaching personal and community effects. And we get excited because *finally* we can make some positive change.

Are you throwing your vote away? Are you inadvertently voting *against* your own hopes, dreams, and values? Why are we so careful every 2 years or every 4 years to cast a few votes and then so reckless with the votes we cast every single day?

Every Dollar Is A Vote!

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 making choices aligned with your values, whose life are you living, what votes are you casting… and what kind of world are you building?

Our individual choices are VOTES!  You are voting for and actively building the future… with each and every choice, and especially with each and every purchase.

Your consumer choices act as the conscience of 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 “believes” it is doing something right.

It’s not that these businesses are bad; they don’t know right from wrong — they are simply growing in the direction of YOUR votes. If your values and 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!”

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?

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

Live your values, change the world.

It’s that simple.

All one,
:) m

A 15-minute talk presented by matt bear of NonviolenceUnited.org on Nonviolence and living “A Life Connected.” Given to 400+ high school students and staff in 2009 (Denver, CO).

Being aware is painful. Ignorance is bliss. But ignore-ance is living life at half-throttle. Being aware is living a complete life. There is no honor in ignore-ance. There is no strength in not caring. The honor comes in bearing the pain. The strength lies in answering our responsibility to ease the pain of others. So, i’ll absorb the pain and i’ll repackage it as love. The pain of caring is this thing called life.

All one,

:) m

Draw a circle. Now, put the names of everyone who matters (people and animals) inside the circle. Those who don’t matter, outside. My life’s work (and yours) is to get everyone inside your circle.

All one,

:) m

I read an article listing the cleanest fruits and vegetables to buy if you don’t want to buy organic, but don’t want a mouthful of chemicals. It explained how you can stay healthy and save a buck.  The article missed the point…

Buying organic isn’t about ‘me! me! me!’  Buying organic is about protecting farm workers and their families; it’s about keeping chemicals off the land and out of our water; it’s about protecting wildlife; it’s about saving rivers and oceans; it’s about clean rain and air; it’s about dismantling the giant chemical/gmo companies (like Monsanto and Dow ) that are destroying farmers around the world;  it’s about survival of the planet; it’s about the future of food; and it’s about future generations.

Some will complain, “But I can’t afford to buy organic”.  Cesar Chavez (founder of United Farm Workers and one of my heroes because he understood social justice as one interconnected movement) never made over $6000 in a year, never owned a home, and still he made organic and vegan choices.  I asked his granddaughter Julie Chavez Rodriguez how Cesar would respond to “But I can’t afford it”. Without skipping a beat, she replied, “He’d say, ‘You pay for it now, or you pay for it later.’”

Cesar understood that when you buy something you are supporting it, you are subsidizing it, you are saying, “More of the same, and do it in MY name!”

Buying chemical foods is making the worst food the most available food — and it’s killing people, the planet, and animals. It’s setting up a disastrous future (and present!) where real food will be a thing of the past.

This isn’t about ‘you’ or ‘me’… it is about us.  We’re all one.

Can’t afford to buy organic? We can’t afford NOT to.

:) m

An inspiring short video about the power of the individual.

:) m

From the inspiring Julia Butterfly Hill, a very nice description of the desperate need for reconnection.  Our interconnection is real — like gravity.  This is the nature and purpose of Nonviolence — the active support, connecting and reconnecting, of our fundamental interconnection with one another.

It’s interesting, watching this with someone else, they wondered why Julia didn’t say “and animals.”  I know from my study of and belief in Nonviolence and interconnection, I’ve come to automatically imagine all people, all non-human animals, and all of nature when I hear “one another.”  It’s now just automatic for me. My guess is this is what Julia pictures, too.  I know that’s where her heart is.

“One another,” “each other,” “life”… some may picture their immediate family or their social justice group or national community or human community.  But it’s really just one community… called Earth.  We’re all in this together.

I hope you enjoy this short clip.

All one,
:) m

“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space. [We experience ourselves, our] thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of [our] consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us [excluding others, including animals]. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

- Albert Einstein

I often talk with social justice activists who feel overwhelmed. They try to feel excited at the possibilities, but find themselves crumbling to a halt, depressed, restless and at times feeling hopeless.

Some of us feel on edge, overly anxious and quick to anger. Our eating habits might be irregular — eating too little or too much. We can’t sleep or we can’t stop sleeping. What’s going on?

We may be suffering from a form of Post Traumatic Stress Reaction also known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Many social justice activists have seen things a person should never have to see. We may experience first hand or through videos and extensive reading the images of war, famine, violent attacks, death and atrocities to people, to the planet and to helpless animals.

These images become burned in our minds and can haunt us in our nightmares and in daytime flashbacks.

Some sufferers of PTSD overcome their symptoms/reactions within months of experiencing the trauma. But what about those of us who by the very nature of our work continue to put ourselves in the middle of the horror? What will happen to us when we continue to see and deal with these horrors day in and day out for years?

These very real and lucid memories can be emotionally crippling and result in a host of reactions in our attempt to manage the pain. We can be blind-sided by depression, anxiety, anger, sleeplessness, nightmares, memory loss, restlessness, jumpiness, fear and amplified emotions. And some of us may try to cope in unhealthy ways.

One of the more disturbing and harmful coping mechanisms can be a form of avoidance. The intrusive thoughts and resulting depression, anxiety and/or anger become so distressing that we try to avoid contact with everything and everyone who might trigger the ill feeling. We may withdraw from our activist friends, we may get less involved, we may threaten and destroy relationships all in an unconscious and sometimes conscious attempt to end the pain.

What can we do?

• First, recognize the symptoms in yourself and in your friends and fellow social justice activists. Be supportive of yourself and of each other.
• Know that your reactions are not at all abnormal. Caring people have open hearts and open minds — those open hearts and open minds can be easily hurt. The very definition of compassion means “to suffer with.”
• Seek the help of a counselor, a healthcare professional, a spiritual advisor, a mentor, a family member, a close friend and/or a support group of your fellow activists.
• Take time to look at the sky, to meditate, to breathe, to laugh, to find the joy in life.
• Turn off your television and tune out the violence. Much of the media is designed to keep the public hyper-aroused, anxious and consuming. Tune out the violence and make room for Nonviolence.
• “Shut off” with your friends. You may have friends that deal with the same tough issues. When you’re together recognize that together you already “get it.” You don’t have to convince each other of anything. Help each other find the positive, look for the good, get creative and build on the joy of having a friend who understands.
• Read a good book. Listen to music. Take a walk.

And, maybe most importantly, recognize that you have awakened. You are doing your best to no longer be a part of the cycle of pain. You are part of what is right in this world. Join with others in that joyful awakening and invite others to join us not in painful awareness, but in joyful activism — knowing that from this day forward we are going to make the world a better place for all.

Consider visiting the PTSD link at Activist-Trauma.net.

All one,
:) matt