Worldview

The source of this vision is an inspiring area where modern science and ancient wisdom coincide. Despite this powerful authoritative resource we do not, nor do we expect others, to take any of this on faith, but rather as hypotheses to be tested in the laboratory of our own experience.   To the nonviolent person all of life is an interconnected whole. Therefore when she enters into conflict, she does so with the goal not only of restoring justice where it has been violated but restoring relationships to a new sense of unity. She believes or is willing to accept as a hypothesis that there is no irreducible conflict of real human needs and that in Gandhi’s immortal words, “there’s enough in the world for everyone’s need, there is not enough for everyone’s greed.”   The history of nonviolence itself bears witness to the fundamental accuracy of this vision for while violence may seem to “work” in the short term, it always makes things worse; and even when nonviolence seems to fail, it makes things better.