#noncooperation

2/20/17

Good morning.

My daughter is writing about Gandhi today. He was so right. Show your strength through non-violent, non-cooperation. We need each other.

‘Non-cooperation by patients burdening doctors’

The medical fraternity is subjected to undue pressure due to the non-cooperation by the people tested positive for coronavirus, TUDA Chairman Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy has said.

Addressing the COVID-19 coordination meeting attended by with Joint Collector S. Veerabrahmam (development), SVIMS Director and Vice-Chancellor B. Vengamma and TUDA Vice-Chairman S. Harikrishna and medical…

Gulf non-cooperation: Inside the flailing GCC | Qatar News

As fighting raged during the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war, neighbouring countries of the Gulf region decided it was time to organise militarily and economically to ensure strength in numbers. They were Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Thirty-nine years later, the union that became known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is in tatters because of a…

“Nonviolence as an Evolutionary Force”–Daily Metta

“Non-cooperation is a process of evolution: it has most aptly been described as Evolutionary Revolution.”-–Gandhi (Young India, February 23, 1921)

Gandhi understood that nonviolent non-cooperation against a State, aka civil resistance, meant a closer form of cooperation among people. Assured that such actions would not lead to disorder or chaos, he put his faith securely in the hearts of people as well as in the principles of nonviolence itself. It is revolutionary. Violent non-cooperation, by contrast, most often lacks vision, unity and strategic thinking about “what next,” not to mention that it denies people’s desire for peace which goes much deeper than their desire for vengeance and retaliation, however intense those may feel.

(This reflects what we’re trying to do at UPenn currently. Withdrawing support without vitriol. It has given us strength and power despite the issue remaining unaddressed)

So what does it have to do with evolution? Whenever we non-cooperate with individuals and systems in the spirit of nonviolence, we show with our lives not only that another world is truly possible, but that we desire that world and are willing to withdraw our support from what is no longer working. And we become empowered in the process: the more we become aware of our underlying unity that is so foundational in nonviolent action, the more we realize that we are not required to obey when misguided leaders, ideologies and institutions try to run the show. It’s an intentional shift from unconscious passivity to conscious action. This is why Gandhi maintains that nonviolent non-cooperation can become a force of evolution; instead keeping us locked into the destructive cycle of violence, it releases us and enables us to moves forward toward unexplored frontiers of the human mind, body and spirit.

Experiment in Non-violence

If you were to non-cooperate with one violent institution, which one would it be? What would replace that institution? Research one new nonviolent institution, such as unarmed civilian peacekeeping.

“Duty of Noncooperation and Cooperation”–Daily Metta

“Sometimes non-cooperation becomes as much a duty as cooperation.”--Gandhi (Young India 1-19-1921)

In Sanskrit, the word for “duty” is dharma. There is an expression repeated throughout the Indian spiritual tradition, ahimsa paramo dharma, nonviolence is the highest dharma, or duty. There should be no wonder why Gandhi was so keen on duties. It is in the performance of our nonviolent duties–spiritual and political — that we gain greater and greater freedom.

Nonviolence, moreover, has two sides: cooperation and non-cooperation. While non-cooperation tends to get all of the press and media, the power of nonviolent cooperation is often overlooked. We do ourselves a disservice when we forget to appreciate how hard it is for people to get along in a culture that has created so deep a sense of separateness.

It’s easy enough to enrage people about a certain issue and get them out into the road to block traffic or to refuse to pay taxes as forms of non-cooperation; but is it not more difficult to truly cooperate with our fellow human beings toward the actual creation of more just arrangements? Isn’t it presented to us as somehow easier to simply continue to fight against one another, creating “us and them” dichotomies, instead of focusing on the commonalities and potential solutions that bring us together? To overcome the age-old tactic of “divide and conquer,” Gandhi is telling us, we must instead, “unify and resist.” When everything is telling us to stay separate, loving cooperation comes as a subtle, difficult challenge.

(Its not so difficult after a long period of dedication to this concept. I will admit that while it becomes easier over time it is not something easily learned while promoting the tactics of divide and conquer. There is a long noncooperation process that comes with unlearning the tactics of divide and conquer - and this is where i see many of my childhood friends at as adults. Yet, i find that with children they often gravitate to ‘unify and resist’ naturally as opposed to ‘divide and conquer’. It seems they learn divide and conquer from those raising them/caring for them, including the mass media. I’m lucky i was so sick as a child and young adult that noncooperation with the status quo became imperative and cooperation with others, including myself, enroute to the fulfillment of noncooperation (ahimsa) was the way i survived. But i never cooperated with injustice when i had the ability to do so, which was every time.)

This is where our two nonviolent dharmas take on new light: We can only break down the walls of separateness between us if we first non-cooperate with the insecurities, hatred, malice, criticisms and personal resentments in our own hearts. We must by all means refuse what these impulses ask of us, even do the opposite. Before we are asked to resist one another, we can learn to resist ourselves. In doing so, we gain keen insight into human nature and critical insight into when to move toward constructive work and when it’s time for civil disobedience.  Gandhi reminds us: to nurture our capacity get along with others, not excluding resisting their actions when necessary, is our first duty of duties, and the core of the revolution.

Experiment in Non-violence

Consider the ways that you can work with those who differ from you toward an even higher goal that benefits everyone.

(As a teenager i worked in a gas station for about three years. At times police officers would come in and say racial slurs to me. Unaware that i had direct family whom shared the complexions of the monikers these officers used, i simply would not respond to these comments. Had i spoken up i would have been put at risk. Looking back, i wish i had said more to these officers regarding these slurs, but i was afraid for my life at that point. One of these officers had already held a gun to me once, it didnt seem unreasonable that he may have done so again - and used it. Over ten years later, i was working at a coffeeshop that had police stop by regularly, mostly to flirt with my co workers whom were young women. Throughout this time i always respected the mutual dignity between the police and myself, even after they attacked me once - mistaking me for a resident of the station. I told the officers whom accosted me they should;

‘Come over to Passero’s and get some discount coffee’ They did and Passero’s relationship with the police flourished. Talk to some of the police down in Suburban Station about me. They may have insights into my character no one else can perceive.