Welcome to class. Your class. Your time. Your future. The literature on nonviolence is rich with powerful prose and trenchant thinking. If peace is what every government on earth says it seeks and if peace is the yearning of every heart, then why arent' we studying it and learning it in schools? All of us are called to be peacemakers. Yet in most schools, the history, methods and successes of creating peace through nonviolence have no place in the curriculum.
The course you are about to take is designed to make modest amends for your peace miseducation. This eight-lesson course could really be an eighty lesson course. The literature is there but since we are all rushing about making sense or making progress, so we think, start with what's here.
Studying peace through nonviolence is as much about getting the bombs out of our world as it is about getting them out of our heart. Many people are avid about creating peace across the ocean but meanwhile there's a war going on across the living room. Every problem we have, every conflict, whether among our family or friends, or internationally among governments, will be addressed through violent force or nonviolent force. No third way exists.
It's important to understand all viewpoints. Even if you are not a pacifist, or enthusiast of nonviolence, these ideas are refreshing, and ripe for insight and interpretation. It's time we make a sensible choice as to how we deal with conflict. Only by reviewing the available information, and duly considering it, can we make an enlightened choice, and give our informed consent. For adults, and children.
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This is brought to you from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. I highly recommend a sincere perusal of the website, and the ideas and methods of this organization.
