Einstein said that he didn’t know what weapons would be used in WW III … but that WW IV would be fought with sticks and stones. This little essay consists mostly of some poetic statements about strategic nonviolence … some thoughts on how to avoid the fate that Einstein feared.
“Laws of conflict” apply to large-scale conflicts. Quite obviously, we find exceptions to these laws on the individual level.
Laws of conflict
1. Every conflict is unique, tactics
must be tailored to the situation.
2. Violence begets violence.
3. Nonviolence begets nonviolence.
4. The cost / benefit ratio for violence
is worse than for nonviolence.
Is Stategic nonviolence practical?
Hitler is the usual bogeyman
To “prove” nonviolence
Couldn’t possibly work.
Three times nonviolence
Was used against Hitler,
Three spontaneous actions.
1. German wives of Jewish men
Defied Gestapo machine guns.
Secured the men’s release
2. Bulgarian cattle cars full of Jews
Massive public outcry demands “Stop!”
All of Bulgaria’s Jews saved.
3. The Danes rose up as a people
Spirited 7500 Jews to Sweden
While the occupying army seemed blind.
Three times nonviolence was tried
Three times the Nazis lost to nonviolence
Three times the impossible happened.
The TV Story Line for Violence
The hero is portrayed as ready
When evil comes, the hero shoots
Kills the evil one and wins the girl.
The coward submits to evil
Surrenders to save his miserable hide
Loses the girl and abets evil.
The nonviolent one is portrayed
As having unrealistic scruples
Preventing effective action.
In extremis, the nonviolent one
Overcomes his scruples
Becomes a hero, shoots the bad guy.
TV schools our imagination
We see the violence storyline everywhere
The nonviolence storyline is absent.
We mostly prefer nonviolence
But our imagination lacks stories
Of powerful effective nonviolence.
Denmark Rising – the novel
My novel, Denmark Rising, explores what happens when Denmark uses strategic nonviolence to resist the Nazis in WW II. The story unfolds as a deadly contest between unexpected tactics by the Danes and brutal responses by the Germans. At war’s end, the Danes have paid a heavy price but the Germans were largely stymied and achieved few of their objectives.
Readers rave about Denmark Rising:
▪ fires the imagination
▪ couldn’t put it down
▪ stays with you long after you close the book
▪ most important book on nonviolence ever written
▪ stayed up all night to finish it
▪ utterly believable
▪ a practical manual cleverly disguised as a gripping novel
You can read a lengthy excerpt and find background information on Denmark Rising HERE
Contact me: I love to hear from readers. Email me at cyberneticapress at gmail dot com. Thanks, Barry Clemson