Martin Luther, Nonviolence and Riding the Tiger

I read three essays on nonviolence.

The first was by Martin Luther King Jr., "My pilgrimage to nonviolence." The most valuable aspect for me was following along the history of his education, his discovery of various schools of thought and beliefs in the works of many philosophers, from Plato and Aristotle, to Nietsche, Marx, Lenin, Hegel. And with each of them he would say "all these masters stimulated my thinking ... and while I found things to question in each of them, I nevertheless learned learned a great deal..." It is humbling to see how this man was learning, examining the works of these titans of thought, still trusting his critical mind, never forgetting thheir humanity, and never judging them.

Then, "The violence in ourselves" by Dorothy T Samuel, distinguishing between anger and violence. Anger towards a situation is different from anger against a person. The former gives much needed strength to face challenging circumstances while the latter contains the seeds of violence. Learning to "ride" one's anger, to channel it towards the resolution of a given situation, is a useful skill. Suppressing the anger, on the other hand, is self-destructive, and violent, and ultimately leads to violence.

The third essay is a homage to Ghandi's work, distinguishing between pacifism and passivity. Mentions the need to create peace within one's heart first, and then relate to the world from that space. Emphasizes the fact that each of us, given the circustances, is capable of both the most terrible and cruel crimes, and the highest sacrifice.