Robert J. BurrowesAs we approach the International Day of Nonviolence on 2 October, which recognises Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, one challenge we face is to celebrate his life in a way that Gandhi himself would have found meaningful. Gandhi was not a man of token gestures. His life was dedicated to his search for the Truth and guided by his passionate belief that nonviolence was the means to reach it. He was a visionary who was profoundly aware of the damage human violence is doing to ourselves, each other and the Earth.Despite his example, most of us are familiar with those horror lists that reveal the extent of our ongoing violence. Here is a sample just to refresh your memory.
Human beings spend $2,000,000,000 each day on military violence, the sole purpose of which is to terrorise and kill fellow human beings.
Because we spend so many resources on military violence, one human being in Africa, Asia or Central/South America is starved to death every two or three seconds – that is 35,000 people each day – and poverty and homelessness continue their relentless expansion in industrialised
countries. Moreover, human activity drives 200 species of life (birds, animals, fish, insects) to extinction each day and 80% of the world’s forests and over 90% of the large fish in the ocean are already gone.
As polluters, humans are supreme. For example, each year we dump billions of kilograms of pesticides into the environment which pollutes the groundwater and seriously damages human health. We also pump vast quantities of carbon into the atmosphere and release radioactive
contaminants into the environment too. How serious is this? According to James Hansen and colleagues, ongoing burning of fossil fuels at the current rate will cause catastrophic levels of global warming and burning all fossil fuels ‘would make most of the planet uninhabitable by humans’.
And, according to Layne Hartsell and Emanuel Pastreich, commenting on just one aspect of the radioactive contamination problem: ‘Radiation continues to leak from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi site into groundwater, threatening to contaminate the entire Pacific Ocean.’ (See ‘Peer-to-Peer Science: The Century-Long Challenge to Respond to Fukushima’
http://fpif.org/peer-peer-science-century-long-challenge-respond-fukushima/)
Can humanity survive? The odds are now stacked heavily against us: despite the persistent warnings of visionaries, such as Gandhi, and scientists since the 1940s, we have breached far too many limits that it would have been wise to respect.
But many great people are still struggling nonviolently. And by ‘great people’ I mean ordinary people like you and me who are willing to listen to the truth and then do something tangible to make a difference. So what can we do?
Gandhi once said: ‘If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children.’ And I agree with him but in this respect particularly: we must end adult violence against children, the source of all other violence.
This is because an integrated strategy to fight for human survival must be based on a precise understanding of why human beings are violent (see ‘Why Violence?’ http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence) and offer a comprehensive program for tackling this violence at its source and in all of its manifestations.
In 2011, a new worldwide movement designed to do this was launched. ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World’ invites people and organisations to consider publicly declaring their commitment to work to end human violence by signing an online pledge to participate in this
worldwide effort. One way of doing so, for example, is to become involved in ‘The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth’
http://tinyurl.com/flametree which is a simple way for individuals, households and communities to tackle the full range of environmental problems.
So far, many individuals and organisations in 57 countries have signed the Nonviolence Charter. Signatories include atheists, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Jews and Muslims and endorsing organisations include academic, religious and women’s groups as well as organisations that work on peace, development, human rights and environmental sustainability. One of the signatories is the Mahatma’s granddaughter, Ela Gandhi.
So how do you feel about this idea? Can we finally acknowledge the truth of the pervasive threats to human survival and act nonviolently in response to this truth?
Gandhi once said: ‘A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history’. Are you a ‘determined spirit’? If you are, you can wish Gandhi ‘happy birthday’ by joining the worldwide movement to end all violence, and chart
a new human future, by signing online ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World’ http://thepeoplesnonviolencecharter.wordpress.com
Robert J. Burrowes, P.O. Box 68, Daylesford, Victoria 3460, Australia
Email: flametree@riseup.net
