Thread by @CGraceTweet, Tonight's #debates remind me of a lecture I heard in my [...]

Tonight's #debates

remind me of a lecture I heard in my @lsu undergrad on #rhetoric #justice & #peace

Empathy is key to finding common ground - a thread on #nonviolence & #politics featuring Ghandi, Churchill, Hitler, & MLKjr

1/

Gandhi is best known for nonviolent protests to secure India's independence from the British empire. Perhaps lesser known is that Gandhi wrote letters to Mussolini and Hitler on the eve of WWII to ask them to avoid war

#debates

#rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

2/

From @TIME:

"The only God that Hitler knew was brute force...[yet] Gandhi felt duty-bound to appeal to Hitler and Mussolini because, as human beings, they too had the capacity to distinguish truth from falsehood"

http://time.com/5685122/gandhi-hitler-letter

#debates

#politics #empathy

3/

In addition to these letters, Gandhi advised British leaders to take on "non-violent resistance to Hitler"

Churchill's response, not by any means a fan of Gandhi, can be summarized as "Pffft"

https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-108/churchill-s-greatness-4-exploding-freedom-an-indian-s-perspective/

#debates

#rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

4/

Churchill’s Greatness (4) – EXPLODING FREEDOM: AN INDIAN’S PERSPECTIVE

Finest Hour 108, Autumn 2000 Page 13By INDER DAN RATNUBefore we settle the question of who is "Person of the Century," we ought to decide what made the 20th century extraordinary. I believe the...

https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-108/churchill-s-greatness-4-exploding-freedom-an-indian-s-perspective/

Now when my professor gave us this lecture, he noted a couple of things:

First, Churchill was a war hero, racist & pretty horrific to Gandhi in particular

see, e.g.,
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/04/churchill-gandhi-briton-indian-greatest/584170/

#debates

#rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

5/

Second, that nonviolence as a strategy to persuade another to do something (remember, rhetoric is the art of persuasion) only works if the other party has enough #empathy to be convinced by nonviolence

#debates

#rhetoric #nonviolence #politics

6/

Meaning, that in the case of the independence of India, British citizens and pressure from global leaders including President Roosevelt created a "sense of shame" that made nonviolence effective

http://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/modernworldhistorytextbook/imperialism/section_4/independence.html

#debates

#rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

7/

"In the arena of international public opinion, the British Empire seemed on the wrong side of history... Roosevelt sympathized with jailed Congress leaders such as Gandhi and Nehru."

http://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/modernworldhistorytextbook/imperialism/section_4/independence.html

#debates

#rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

8/

All #nonviolent protests use empathy a tool of persuasion

Example: nonviolent protests led by MLKjr & others showed America's moral & spiritual deficits & led Johnson to push the Civil Rights Act

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2007.00599.x

#debates

#rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

9/

The Politics of Idealism: Lyndon Johnson, Civil Rights, and Vietnam

Click on the article title to read more.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2007.00599.x

"Addressing a group of business executives, LBJ asked rhetorically, 'I don't know why you can't say, ‘Except for the grace of God, I might be in his place and he might be in mine.’"

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2007.00599.x

#debates

#rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

10/

The Politics of Idealism: Lyndon Johnson, Civil Rights, and Vietnam

Click on the article title to read more.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2007.00599.x

Now back to Gandhi, Hitler, & Churchill - my professor argued that the reason nonviolence did not work with Nazis (see, e.g., the London bombings) was that the Reich had no #empathy for the other side, & did not see them as people

#debates

#rhetoric #nonviolence #politics

11/

Essentially, you cannot persuade someone to your side who cannot say to themselves that they might someday be in your shoes

You cannot "shame" someone into recognizing your humanity if they see you as "other" or "enemy"

#debates

#rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

12/

Recent research on #nonviolence may argue that #empathy is secondary (e.g., https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/01/18/how-the-world-is-proving-mlk-right-about-nonviolence/)

I'm more philosophical - #justice is not a quantitative endpoint but rather a #spirtual mandate

#debates

#rhetoric #politics

13/

How the world is proving Martin Luther King right about nonviolence

Six lessons on nonviolent vs. violent protest from political science

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/01/18/how-the-world-is-proving-mlk-right-about-nonviolence/

So how do you create #empathy?

. @StanfordKingCtr is informative here:

"“The nonviolent resister not only refuses to shoot his opponent but he also refuses to hate him'"

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/nonviolence

#debates

#rhetoric #politics

14/

Nonviolence

As a theologian, Martin Luther King reflected often on his understanding of nonviolence. He described his own “pilgrimage to nonviolence” in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, and in subsequent...

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/nonviolence

"The resister should be motivated by love in the sense of the Greek word agape, which means 'understanding,' or 'redeeming goodwill for all men'"

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/nonviolence

@StanfordKingCtr

#debates

#rhetoric #politics #empathy

15/

Nonviolence

As a theologian, Martin Luther King reflected often on his understanding of nonviolence. He described his own “pilgrimage to nonviolence” in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, and in subsequent...

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/nonviolence

"The nonviolent resister must have a 'deep faith in the future,' stemming from the conviction that 'The universe is on the side of justice'"

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/nonviolence

@StanfordKingCtr

#debates

#rhetoric #politics #empathy

16/

Nonviolence

As a theologian, Martin Luther King reflected often on his understanding of nonviolence. He described his own “pilgrimage to nonviolence” in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, and in subsequent...

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/nonviolence

King also writes, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that... #nonviolence... seeks to break the chain reaction of evil"

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/nonviolence

@StanfordKingCtr

#debates

#rhetoric #politics #empathy

17/

Nonviolence

As a theologian, Martin Luther King reflected often on his understanding of nonviolence. He described his own “pilgrimage to nonviolence” in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom, and in subsequent...

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/nonviolence

So, why write this Twitter novella at midnight following the #Debates2020

?

Because I have to believe that most Americans can muster #empathy for each other, even across the aisle, even with polarization

That's one of the lessons I've learned working in #caregiving

18/

This is the moment to listen, to "bear wrongs patiently" & "instruct the ignorant" (as the Catholics say)

Or as @MichelleObama said,
"When they go low, we go high..."

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/12/michelle-obama-on-famous-catchphrase-when-they-go-low-we-go-high.html

#politics #empathy #debates

#debates2020

19/

Michelle Obama: Why going 'high' when faced with a challenge is so important to her

At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama first uttered her now-famous catchphrase, "When they go low, we go high" while discussing how to "handle bullies" in support of Hillary...

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/12/michelle-obama-on-famous-catchphrase-when-they-go-low-we-go-high.html

"Going high means standing fierce against hatred while remembering that we are one nation under God, & if we want to survive, we’ve got to find a way to live together and work together across our differences." @MichelleObama

#debates

#politics

20/

"When we go low, when we use those same tactics of degrading and dehumanizing others, we just become part of the ugly noise that's drowning out everything else." @MichelleObama

#empathy #debates

#politics

21/

You can't listen over ugly noise.

If you can't listen, you can't build #empathy.

You run the risk of becoming the very thing you criticize - the unjust, angry, discriminatory leader who sees only "us" vs. "them."

We're better than that.

#politics #debates

#peace

22/end

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