King's Prophetic Words Using nonviolent means to improve society BY SPRUCE HOUSER 'The choice is no longer violence or nonviolence; it's nonviolence or nonexistence.' When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these words to a packed church in Memphis just before his assassination, he seemed to be pointing toward an ominous collision course between humanity's propensity for violence and its capability to produce ever-deadlier weapons. A recent scientific development appears to only further confirm King's warning. "A research team backed by a federal grant has created a genetically engineered mousepox virus designed to evade vaccines, underscoring biotechnology's deadly potential." (AP, Oct.31, 2003) The mousepox virus is very similar to the human smallpox virus, instilling deep concerns that such alterations could form super strains of bioweapons for which there would be no defense. Another deadly weapon is the "silent nuclear bomb." This development has not received the media coverage it deserves because such weapons do not yield spectacular fireballs and mushroom clouds. Yet the potential killing power of genetically altered bioweapons would clearly rival atomic blasts. Even more sobering, these weapons would be much more accessible as the technology is far cheaper (see Richard Preston's compelling book Demon in the Freezer). The choice between violence and nonviolence is perhaps one of the most fundamental and profound moral issues encountered in life. So many other ethical issues are subsumed within its overarching framework. What is poverty but structural violence against the poor? What is hatred but psychological violence against the hated? What is toxic pollution but violence against the earth itself? The list of manifestations of violence goes on.   Modern day zealots are another dangerous weapon. Here in Eugene, the issue is real and palpable. Opponents of nonviolence have even broadcast on community access TV the face of a local nonviolent activist superimposed on Jesus being crucified. The apparent message was that the nonviolent approach has been an abject failure. I have to wonder whether the countless millions who have been moved by the teachings of Jesus would beg to differ. Those who advocated violence against the Roman empire were called Zealots. Those who assail nonviolence today do not realize they are replaying an ancient role in an ancient drama. In painting a picture of failure, opponents of nonviolence conveniently ignore or distort the many successful social movements that were based on its principles. Women's right to vote, more humane working conditions, liberation of subservient colonies (such as India), equal rights for racial minorities, ending the Vietnam war, the overthrow of dictatorships in Chile and the Philippines, moratorium on nuclear power, capping an out-of-control nuclear arms race, and protection of old growth forests have all been gained through active nonviolence. Opponents to nonviolence counter, "But is not the basic system still intact?" The power of nonviolent resistance has succeeded in each specific campaign in which it has been applied on the necessary scale. The transformation of society itself constitutes a larger challenge. However, society is not transformed by coercive threat but through inspiration. Nonviolence fully contains the capacity to transform our society. What power could corporate chieftains possibly hold over our lives if: a) we who buy their products and work their jobs were to nonviolently refuse to cooperate? b) we participated instead in the creation of an ecologically based, sustainable economy and way of life impervious to corporate control? and c) if ballot initiatives were used to ban corporate money from dominating our political process? The only "failure" in this context lies not in the principle but rather in the lack of participation on the scale necessary.   While many of humanity's spiritual teachers, including Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi and King, have warned us to turn from the path of violence, that message has essentially been ignored. The spectre we face today of weapons of mass destruction seems a kind of karmic recoil of our refusal to turn away. It is as if a giant noose of our own making is tightening around the collective neck of humanity. This choice is being presented for perhaps the final time. If humanity does not turn from this path, it shall reap what it has sown. If we seek a peaceful, just, and sustainable world, then the means we choose must also be peaceful, just, and sustainable. Our means must not contradict and negate the ends we seek. In the deeply profound words of Gandhi, "The means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree; and there is just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree." Spruce Houser of Eugene has been involved in nonviolent resistance campaigns concerning nuclear weapons, nuclear power, industrial pollution, old growth forests and restoring democratic control over corporations.
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