[Peace-discuss] Thomas Merton on Nonviolence

[John Fettig]

"The reason for emphasizing nonviolent resistance is this:  he who
resists force with force in order to seize power may become contaminated
by the evil which he is resisting and, when he gains power, may be just
as ruthless and unjust a tyrant as the one he has dethroned.  A
non-violent victory, while far more difficult to achieve, stands a
better chance of curing the illness instead of contracting it.

"There is an essential difference here, for nonviolence seeks to 'win'
not by destroying or even by humiliating the adversary, but by
*convincing him* that there is a higher and more certain common good
than can be attained by bombs and blood.  Nonviolence, ideally speaking,
does not try to overcome the adversary by winning over him, but to turn
him from an adversary into a collaborator by winning him over.
Unfortunately, nonviolent resistence as practiced by those who do not
understand it and have been trained in it is often only a weak and
veiled form of psychological aggression."