Constructive Program
Click here to access transcripts of all audio recordings within the Person Power, Constructive Program, and Satyagraha course.
Principles
1. Constructive Program is the scaffolding upon which the structure of a new society will be built while struggling against the old.
2. By empowering the positive force of nonviolence, constructive work balances the “noncooperation with evil” with “cooperation with good, creating an unstoppable force.
Question: Dr. Nagler suggests that nonviolence is not the negation of reality but affirms it, how does constructive program relate to this? Explain in your own words.
3. By providing the people with basic needs through their own work, the lie of dependency is proven wrong and the chains of oppression shattered.
4. It unifies diversity by creating work in which everyone can participate. Such work is ongoing, proactive, and builds community.
5. Constructive program trains people to live a nonviolent life. Just as training for violent revolt means the use of military weapons; training for Satyagraha means constructive program.
Strategies
1. Be concrete and constructive. Although programs can, and often do have symbolic resonance, they cannot be merely symbolic. (Gandhi’s spinning wheel was an ideal combination).
Question: Why is merely symbolic action relatively weak?
2. Try to find “stealth” issues whose significance will be underestimated by the opposition – until it’s too late.
Question: Summarize in your own words what Dr. Nagler explained in this talk.
Question: Explain how dependency leads to violence.
Question: What is it meant by a stealth issue and a nonviolent moment?
3. Most importantly, tackle “keystone” issues that could weaken the whole system if successful. In other words, actions that significantly undermine the oppressive power’s “pillars of support.”
Question: What does “keystone” mean in this context and why is it significant?
4. Be constructive whenever possible and resistant when necessary.
Questions:
A. Why not just be resistant in the first place if you know you’ll have to do it eventually?
B. Is constructive program a form of resistance?
C. Can you think of any movements today that reflect this fourth point?
5. Form a strategic overview that balances constructive and obstructive measures; shifting to one or the other as appropriate.
Question: “I cannot be what I ought to be unless you are what you ought to be, and you cannot be what you ought to be unless I am what I ought to be.” Think about this quote by Martin Luther King. Relate it to what Dr. Nagler said.
Question: Dr. Nagler made extensive claims about the capacity of constructive program to empower the individual almost as a form of spiritual development. Did he back up these claims? If it seems plausible to you, how would you back it up?
Question: How would having the capacity to: A) carry out either obstructive or constructive measures and B) be able to choose whatever is appropriate at a given time, strengthen the campaign?