Tonight& #39;s #debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> 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& #39;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 https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #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

https://time.com/5685122/g... href="https://twtext.com//hashtag/debates"> #debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #politics #empathy

3/
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/

https://www.theatlantic.com/internati... href="https://twtext.com//hashtag/debates"> #debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #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 https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #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

https://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcl... href="https://twtext.com//hashtag/debates"> #debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #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

https://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcl... href="https://twtext.com//hashtag/debates"> #debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

8/
All #nonviolent protests use empathy a tool of persuasion

Example: nonviolent protests led by MLKjr & others showed America& #39;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

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/... href="https://twtext.com//hashtag/debates"> #debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

9/
"Addressing a group of business executives, LBJ asked rhetorically, & #39;I don& #39;t know why you can& #39;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

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/... href="https://twtext.com//hashtag/debates"> #debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

10/
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 https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #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 https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #rhetoric #nonviolence #politics #empathy

12/
"The resister should be motivated by love in the sense of the Greek word agape, which means & #39;understanding,& #39; or & #39;redeeming goodwill for all men& #39;"

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

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclope... href="https://twitter.com/StanfordKingCtr">@StanfordKingCtr

#debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #rhetoric #politics #empathy

15/
"The nonviolent resister must have a & #39;deep faith in the future,& #39; stemming from the conviction that & #39;The universe is on the side of justice& #39;"

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

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclope... href="https://twitter.com/StanfordKingCtr">@StanfordKingCtr

#debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #rhetoric #politics #empathy

16/
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

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclope... href="https://twitter.com/StanfordKingCtr">@StanfordKingCtr

#debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #rhetoric #politics #empathy

17/
So, why write this Twitter novella at midnight following the #Debates2020 https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt="">?

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

That& #39;s one of the lessons I& #39;ve learned working in #caregiving

18/
"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

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gyXQKPRuDp0

https://youtube.com/watch... href="https://twtext.com//hashtag/debates"> #debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #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& #39;s drowning out everything else." @MichelleObama

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gyXQKPRuDp0

https://youtube.com/watch... href="https://twtext.com//hashtag/empathy"> #empathy #debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #politics

21/
You can& #39;t listen over ugly noise.

If you can& #39;t listen, you can& #39;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& #39;re better than that.

#politics #debates https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> #peace

22/end
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