Nonviolence Read Free

lack of mutual love. The son loves himself and does not love his father and so cheats his father for his own gain; the younger brother loves himself and does not love his father and so cheats his elder brother for his own gain. The same applies to the state officers and their overlords. This is what the world calls disorder. In the same way the father loves himself and not his son and cheats his son for his own profit, and so likewise with the elder brother and the overlord. This all comes from the lack of mutual love. Their case is the same as that of robbers and brigands who likewise love their own households, but not the homes of others and so rob others' homes for the benefit of their own. Like unto these, too, are state officers and princes who make war on other countries—because they love their own country but not other countries, and so seek to profit their own country at the expense of others. The ultimate cause of all disorders in the world is the lack of mutual love.
    Mozi goes on to make a point that was later voiced in Judaism by the first-century A.D. rabbi Hillel and reiterated by his contemporary, Jesus, who called it the Golden Rule. Mozi wrote:
For if every man were to regard the persons of others as his own person, who would inflict pain and injury on others? If they regarded the homes of others as their own homes, who would rob others' homes? Thus in that case there would be no brigands or robbers. If the princes regarded other countries as their own, who would wage war on other countries? Thus in that case there would be no more war.
    Chinese comes closer than most languages to a word for non-violence. In Taoism there is a concept embodied in the word teh. Not exactly nonviolence, which is an active force, teh is the virtue of not fighting—nonviolence is the path to teh.
    Taoism is centered on the fifth-century B.C. teachings of Lao Tsu, who is thought to be the author of the Tao te ching, The Cannon of the Way and Virtue. Tao itself is an untranslatable word, often mentioned in The Analects. It is a balancing force sometimes said to be what keeps nature from tumbling into chaos. It says in the Tao te ching, “The ruler imbued with the Tao will not use the force of arms to subdue other countries.” But it adds that a country should have a military force for defense and that its preparedness will be a deterrent. The military should be “ready but not boastful.” This half-road to nonviolence is not nonviolence at all, since all of history shows that nations who build military forces as deterrents eventually use them—a disturbing lesson in an age of “nuclear deterrents.”
    But there is in Tao, as in Hinduism, the notion that human beings evolve and the more highly evolved human beings do not needphysical violence. “The skillful knight is not warlike. The skilled strategist is never angry. He who is skilled in overcoming his enemies does not join battle.”
    In Taoism teh is a perfection of nature, and, as in Hinduism, it is something few people have the strength and character to live up to. The concept is echoed in Christianity by such notions as the meek being blessed and the last being first. Teh holds that:
In nature the softest overcomes the strongest. There is nothing in the world so weak as water. But nothing can surpass it in attacking the hard and strong; there is no way to alter it. Hence weakness overcomes strength, softness overcomes hardness. The world knows this but is unable to practice it.
    Eastern religions, which Westerners tend to regard as ethereal and only workable for the dreamiest of idealists, actually have a pragmatic side. They recognize that violence is wrong, that nonviolence is the path that ought to be taken, but they also recognize that humans are weak and imperfect and that only a few of the most evolved and extraordinary among us will choose that path and stay with it.
    Judaism, a religion that is more than 5,700 years old, has many layers of both laws and