A History of Non-Violence

So, I have started watching the webcasts for the Introduction to Nonviolence class at UC Berkeley. The first one is pretty cool, a quick overview of what is going to be talked about. More specifically he talks about the idea behind the non-violence theories, with a model for situation which involves positive and negative energy, and how they apply to a real-world situation.

His basic outline is that you have negative energy situations and positive energy situations and that you can introduce negative or positive energy to those situations and they will change to the corresponding energy that you introduce. So, if you are in a negative situation, the real way to deal with it is not to approach it with a negative energy response but a positive energy response.

I'm not sure what I think about all this, I suppose I will reserve judgment until I get further into the course but my initial reaction is that it all sounds well and good but is not too practical. However, thankfully, I believe that this will be dispelled by the class as I think that's it's purpose, to show that non-violence is in fact practical, with Ghandi being the prime example used.

I think that I will try and pick up the required texts for the class, there are only two and I doubt that they would be too much, especially if I found them second-hand. I don't know how I will find the time to do this all but, I suppose I can try. I waste a lot of time on random crap and while it's all and good this might be a nice thing to do instead of something random, we'll see. If anyone is reading this and wants to go through this with me you are more than free to mirror post on your own blog. ;-) Or, if you prefer, in the comments section of each post things could be discussed. Just a thought.