The Wedding of Humanity and Nonviolence 22 comments

11 Aug 2006 @ 05:13, by Roger Eaton Our Unity-and-Diversity Global Assembly Dialog will begin in September. By now readers of these pages will know the outline of the Global Assembly process. We will start with two or three networks, each with some 150 to 750 email addresses. The online dialog will alternate between “unity” and “diversity” rounds where in the unity rounds, all the participants together will write and rate each other's messages to select one message representing all the participants, and in the diversity rounds each network will in like fashion select its own message in parallel. The intent is to bring in more and more networks until we are truly representative of humanity, all the while debating best practices for growth and action. Just how, we don't quite know yet, but somehow, we are going to arrange for a Nonviolent Taskforce as the semi-autonomous executive arm of the Global Assembly. Whereas the Global Assembly will be inclusive, the Nonviolent Taskforce will be exclusive, requiring all who apply to be trained in nonviolence. This arrangement will have two important effects. First, it will ground the discussions of the Global Assembly, focusing them on what can be accomplished with the resources of the Nonviolent Taskforce. Second, with its executive branch constrained by the ahimsa rule to do no harm, the Global Assembly will itself be trained as it grows to think in terms of what can be accomplished by positive actions, or, where force might be required, by nonviolent force, which always leaves the door for reconciliation wide open. We can expect that even when we reach planetary size with hundreds of millions of participants, the Assembly will remain deeply nonviolent in its outlook. As the twig is bent, so the branch grows. The psychological idea we are relying on is obliquely expressed by the saying “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Every action will have to be contemplated in the light of nonviolence, and therefore the principles of nonviolence will be a sidelight in every discussion, either explicitly or implicitly. By developing the Global Assembly in this manner, we will be wedding humanity to its highest ideals and so guarding against the danger that a unified humanity might scapegoat some group. Also, too, by espousing nonviolence, the Global Assembly may protect itself from attack by the violent forces now seemingly in charge of the planet. We will come in under the radar and we can hope that by the time our strength is known, it will be unstoppable.

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