Community Corner

Bring On the Peace Army

The Metta Center has a lofty goal: end the pervasive culture of violence and replace it with a world of peace, love and compassion for all living things.

Violence has ruled our world from the beginning of time, creating vast empires, forging new nations and resolving, or at least trying to resolve, disputes.

The average American is subjected to a high dose of violence in their daily lives, too, from the news to video games, movies as well in their own homes and communities.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, says Michael Nagler, the founder of the Petaluma-based Metta Center for Nonviolence, which is working to change the culture of violence that many have come to believe is a normal part of the human experience.

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“Nonviolence is not just a matter of not hitting back when someone hits you,” says Nagler, a Gandhian scholar who founded UC Berkeley’s Peace and Conflict Studies program in the ‘70s and lives in Tomales. “It’s your refusal to cringe or lash out with which you awaken something in your opponent, where they didn’t really want to hit you, but felt compelled to do it by conditioning.” 

Because it's not a member-based organization, the group’s presence is mostly unknown in Petaluma. Yet inside their cozy office (which is really a cabin) on Bodega Avenue, the group has embarked on some fascinating work, collaborating with teachers to spread the message of nonviolence to the classroom, and holding workshops, lectures, movie screenings and even a monthly hiking group. 

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Just last week, a group of Syrian activists came for a visit to discuss ways they could use nonviolence techniques in their country’s ongoing civil war. A former child soldier has applied for a fellowship and the son of a well-known former Sandinista soldier sought out the group to discuss the path to nonviolence.

About 60,000 are estimated to have died in the nearly decade-long confict in Nicaragua. Click here to see a breakdown of all war casualties in the 20th century.

“What we are seeing is a growth in the right direction, although it’s been frustrated by modern culture which is pushing things back,” says Nagler. “But people are getting disgusted with mass killing and the abuse and torture of others.”

Nagler is a follower of Sri Eknath Easwaran, an Indian guru whose picture is prominently displayed in his office and has devoted his life to studying and teaching nonviolence. In 1982, he co-founded the Metta Center and since then has written numerous books on the issue, including his most famous work, “The Search for a Nonviolent Future,” published in 2001.

His UC Berkeley Peace and Conflict lecture series—56 in all— have been downloaded by more than 100,000 people, and he has been honored with a prestigious award for promoting the teaching and principles of Mahatma Gandhi outside of India. (Archbishop Desmond Tutu won the same award in 2000.)

Nagler is also an ardent advocate of unarmed civilian peacekeeping, in which “peace workers” go into warzones in an effort to diffuse tensions. The concept is modeled on Gandhi’s Peace Army, or Shanti Sena, founded in 1958 and which uses peace-building techniques to resolve conflict between opposing sides.

It’s easy to dismiss the idea as naïve, especially when dealing with areas where the conflict is ideological or longstanding, but studies show that it’s more effective that many realize. According to “Why Civil Resistance Works,” a 2011 book by Erica Chenoweth, nonviolent campaigns are more than twice as effective as violent ones.

One organization whose entire work is built around this concept is Nonviolent Peaceforce, which has used peacekeepers in Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Colombia, and is about to embark on a mission in the Sudan region.

Unlike traditional peacekeepers, you won't find any gun-slinging soldiers here. Instead the force acts as neutral third party observers, holding community meetings and employing techniques like "rumor abatement," to keep false information from igniting violence.

“We are having these small victories and feel like if more people knew about the possibility of nonviolent peacekeeping, they would begin to see that it works,” says Stephanie Van Hook, the executive director of the Metta Center and a former Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Benin. “You spend less money and you get a better result.”

But nonviolence is a lot more than just not using force, says Van Hook.

“Ultimately, it’s about developing inner security to be able to overcome other people’s opinions and judgments, to become so secure within yourself so that when you act, you become a beneficial force to others,” she says.

Adds Nagler: “Nonviolence is not just a technique. It’s a disposition of the heart.”

The Metta Center for Nonviolence holds a monthly conversation cafe at Aqus on the third Saturday of the month and a hike on the fourth Saturday of the month as well as screenings and workshops. For more information, check out their website.

Do you believe in nonviolence and how have you used it in your own life? Is it effective in combating violent and oppressive rule or must force be met with force?


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