“If love cannot stop wars, tell me what can.”

In Okinawa during the bloodiest battle of WWII, Doss saved 75 men without firing or carrying a gun. He was the only American soldier in WWII to fight on the front lines without a weapon, as he believed that while the war was justified, killing was nevertheless wrong. Credit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2119532/

I watched a movie recently that conveyed the true story of a soldier in World War 2. Right in the midst of one of our biggest wars in history, Desmond Doss stood and took the stance of peace and non-violence. He was a med that would not use a gun, even if he was going to die. He would rather die than use an instrument of death.

You can watch the trailer here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s2-1hz1juBI

According to the centre for non-violence and social justice, non-violence is, 'The practice of nonviolence calls for peaceful active behavior in the midst of conflict. At its core, nonviolence embodies respect, and even love, for one’s opponents. The practice recognizes and utilizes the importance of dialogue without the use of physical threat or coercion in negotiating and problem-solving.' Credit: http://www.nonviolenceandsocialjustice.org/FAQs/What-is-Nonviolence/42/

Non-violence is a belief that communicating respectively and using an understanding of power relations can help in ending conflict without the need for threats, death or war.

The first reaction most people have when introduced to the idea of non-violence is to believe that 'it is a hard world out there and if you don't fight for yourself, no one else will and definitely just passivity and words can not'. This was actually my first reaction as well. And I can't say that I totally agree with the use of non-violence in every situation, however my first impressions of it changed after I saw non-violence in action.

Non-violence is not passive, it is in your face active language that draws out all the negative ideologies being used and cancels blame-talk. It is a certain way of using words to bring the other person out of their anger, feelings and emotions and draw them into a place where they can talk about the problem logically. Its by remaining calm yourself and using non-threatening language that the other person then slowly is calmed and able to talk through it successfully.

Now, this is not a very new idea at all. But the value of non-violence has been held by some religions for centuries, although maybe enacted in a passive form. The term non-violence was created by Ghandi, and its directly relating ideas. But we find flashes of its ideas through normal life and other religions.

In her TED talk, Scilla Elworthy says,

'So that's fear. What about anger? Wherever there is injustice there's anger. But anger is like gasoline, and if you spray it around and somebody lights a match, you've got an inferno. But anger as an engine -- in an engine -- is powerful. If we can put our anger inside an engine, it can drive us forward, it can get us through the dreadful moments and it can give us real inner power."

So truly, non-violence is about harnessing our anger and not using it to become violent, but using it to fuel us to an empowered sense of problem-solving.

While everybody is taking life I’m going to be saving it, and that’s going to be my way to serve. - Desmond Doss, medic without a gun. 

Credit:  http://www.moviequotesandmore.com/hacksaw-ridge-new-trailer/