Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 14. maj 2012
/ Time Line May 14, 2012
Version 3.0
13. Maj 2012, 15. Maj 2012
05/14/2012
Thou Shalt Not Kill
By John Scales Avery
One of the functions of good literature is to help us to put
ourselves imaginatively into the skin of another person. Good
literature (and for that matter, good cinema and television) ought
to broaden the range of human sympathy, allowing us to share the
feelings of other people who are very different from ourselves.
It is an interesting fact that Leo Tolstoy, who is generally
considered to have been one of the greatest novelists of all time,
was deeply aware of ethical problems, especially as an old man.
“...The sharpest of all contradictions”, Tolstoy wrote,
“can be seen between the government’s professed faith
in the Christian law of the brotherhood of all humankind, and the
military laws of the state, which force each young man to prepare
himself for enmity and murder...”
In 1894, the young Indian lawyer, Mohandas K. Gandhi, (who was then
working for the civil rights of Indians in South Africa), read
Tolstoy’s books on Christianity and was greatly influenced by
them. Gandhi wrote a review of Tolstoy's “The Kingdom of God
is Within Us”, and in 1909 he sent Tolstoy an account of the
activities of the civil rights movement in South Africa.
He received a reply in which Tolstoy said: “...The longer I
live, and especially now, when I vividly feel the nearness of
death, the more I want to tell others what I feel so particularly
clearly and what to my mind is of great importance - namely that
which is called passive resistance, but which is in reality nothing
else but the teaching of love, uncorrupted by false
interpretations. That love – i.e. The striving for the union
of human souls and the activity derived from that striving - is the
highest and only law of human life, and in the depth of his soul
every human being knows this (as we most clearly see in children);
he knows this until he is entangled in the false teachings of the
world. This law was proclaimed by all - by the Indian as by the
Chinese, Hebrew, Greek and Roman sages of the world. I think that
this law was most clearly expressed by Christ, who plainly said
that ‘in this alone is all the law and the
prophets’...”
“...The peoples of the Christian world have solemnly accepted
this law, while at the same time they have permitted violence and
built their lives on violence; and that is why the whole life of
the Christian peoples is a continuous contradiction between what
they profess, and the principles on which they order their lives -
a contradiction between love accepted as the law of life, and
violence which is recognized and praised, acknowledged even as a
necessity in different phases of life, such as the power of rulers,
courts, and armies...”
“This year, in the spring, at a Scripture examination in a
girls’ high school in Moscow, the teacher and the bishop
present asked the girls questions on the Commandments, and
especially on the sixth. After a correct answer, the bishop
generally put another question, whether murder was always in all
cases forbidden by God’s law; and the unhappy young ladies
were forced by previous instruction to answer ‘not
always’ - that murder was permitted in war and in the
execution of criminals. Still, when one of these unfortunate young
ladies (what I am telling is not an invention, but a fact told to
me by an eye witness) after her first answer, was asked the usual
question, if killing was always sinful, she, agitated and blushing,
decisively answered ‘Always’, and to all the usual
sophisms of the bishop, she answered with decided conviction that
killing always was forbidden in the Old Testament and forbidden by
Christ, not only killing, but every wrong against a brother.
Notwithstanding all his grandeur and arts of speech, the bishop
became silent and the girl remained victorious.”
In the hands of Gandhi, non-violent passive resistance became a
practical political force., which he and his followers used to free
India from colonial domination. To the insidious argument that
“the end justifies the means”, Gandhi answered firmly:
“They say ‘means are after all means’. I would
say ‘means are after all everything’. As the means, so
the end. Indeed the Creator has given us control (and that very
limited) over means, none over end... The means may be likened to a
seed, and the end to a tree; and there is the same inviolable
connection between the means and the end as there is between the
seed and the tree. Means and end are convertible terms in my
philosophy of life.”
In other words, a dirty method produces a dirty result; killing
produces more killing; hate leads to more hate. But there are
positive feedback loops as well as negative ones. A kind act
produces a kind response; a generous gesture is returned;
hospitality results in reflected hospitality. Hindus and Buddhists
call this principle “the law of karma”.
The ideas of non-violence were also used in the civil rights
movement in America, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1967, a year
before his assassination, Dr. King forcefully condemned the Viet
Nam war in an address at a massive peace rally in New York City. He
felt that opposition to war followed naturally from his advocacy of
non-violence. In his book, “Strength to Love”, Dr. King
wrote,“Wisdom born of experience should tell us that war is
obsolete. ...If we assume that life is worth living, and that man
has a right to survival, then we must find an alternative to war
... I am convinced that the Church cannot be silent while mankind
faces the threat of nuclear annihilation. If the church is true to
her mission, she must call for an end to the nuclear arms
race.”
Concerning the Christian principle of loving one’s enemies,
Dr. King wrote: “Why should we love our enemies? Returning
hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night
already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only
light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do
that ... Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy
into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with
hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity... It is this
attitude that made it possible for Lincoln to speak a kind word
about the South during the Civil War, when feeling was most bitter.
Asked by a shocked bystander how he could do this, Lincoln said,
‘Madam, do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my
friends?’ This is the power of redemptive love.”
Today, with the world poised on the edge of a disaster that might
be produced by escalatory cycles of revenge and counter-revenge, we
need to remember wise voices from the past, among them the voices
of Tolstoy, Gandhi and King. They tell us of the immorality, waste
and folly of war. They tell us to recognize the humanity of all
other humans. They tell us to show the love and generosity of
spirit that can turn enemies into friends.
Suggestions for further reading
1. Leo Tolstoy, “The Kingdom of God is Within You”,
(1894), - http://archive.org/details/thekingdomofgodi00tols
2. Mohandas K. Gandhi, “My Experiments With Truth”,
(1929), Beacon Press, (1993).
-
http://archive.org/details/AnAutobiographyOrTheStoryOfMyExperimentsWithTruth
3. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Strength to Love”,
(1963).
05/14/2012
Top
Send
kommentar, email
eller søg i Fredsakademiet.dk
|