![]() So I’m not saying that nonviolence needs to be religious or spiritual, but I would like to make space for it because it can be an important part of social change. The spiritual struggle was every bit as much of it for them as the political struggle. It was only when re-reading that I found it is very difficult to read these people in an entirely secular way. When I wrote my first book, “Counterpower,” I was reading Gandhi and King, and just focusing on their political strategy. We need something inside us to keep us going. In some of the nonviolent discourse, and particularly among some advocates of strategic nonviolence, there’s a hesitancy for an approach that allows space for the spirit. New language for nonviolence - a conversation with Tim Gee.Beyond the rational arguments, this is the experienced truth for many Quakers of what keeps them going in the context of an extremely violent society. The idea that peace and the presence of God are the same is quite a powerful one. It can often be used as a representation of the presence of God. One of the images used for peace, the dove, is an image that arises out of Christianity. How has your Quaker faith shaped your pacifist beliefs? Quakers have a long tradition of working for peace and justice. ![]() I made the link between wars for oil and oil causing climate change, and have been almost a full-time activist ever since. I became an environmentalist shortly after I became a pacifist, after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. ![]() The very power dynamics that have led to the current destruction of the planet are the same ones that lead to war. If we take an approach to pacifism that addresses racism and economic inequality, fascist ideas can’t thrive in that environment.įurthermore, the climate crisis is deeply related to peace. When I think about fascism, and what the core components are of the fascist point of view, these are ultimately the things pacifism tries to take away: toxic masculinity and the swaggering aggression that goes with it, strong pride in the military and obviously a deep racism. It is the presence of justice, not the absence of tension, as Martin Luther King, Jr. Pacifism literally means “peacemaking.” And although it has often been conflated with not doing something, the case I make in the book - building on lots of other people’s work - is that pacifism is a process of creating the conditions of peace. It was when I looked up the origins of the word that I decided I would. I thought long and hard about whether to use “pacifist” in the title of the book. Do you find that people struggle with this concept and can’t imagine pacifism adequately dealing with tough issues, like fascism or the climate crisis? In “Why I Am A Pacifist,” you emphasize an important point: Pacifism is not passive. From developing a pacifist economy to addressing structural injustice - bound up in racism, misogyny and xenophobia - Gee described the challenge and potential of pacifism in the 21st century. Gee emphasized that a truly pacifist movement will require a nuanced approach to building a new society. We spoke about the role of faith in his pacifist approach to activism, and the linkages between war and climate change. I spoke to Gee on Remembrance Day, an occasion when people in the United Kingdom wear red poppy pins on their shirts to commemorate the end of the First World War. Gee’s third and recently published book, “Why I Am A Pacifist,” explores the personal experiences and philosophical arguments that led him to become a pacifist, and how this informs his activism today. More recently, he took part in London’s climate strikes and a sit in that helped disrupt the world’s biggest arms fair. In 2010, he was a member of a group dubbed the “Superglue 3,” having glued himself to the Royal Bank of Scotland protesting its investment in tar sands. In the two decades since that day, Gee has dedicated his life to peace activism and environmental organizing. While some people become pacifists after going to war, throwing those eggs was all the convincing Gee needed to start his lifelong journey of exploring what it means to be a pacifist in the world today. Having grown up in a British Quaker family, he was perhaps primed to feel deeply affected by this schoolyard feud. It wasn’t long, however, before Gee had the sinking feeling that they had done something wrong. Gee and his group decided to retaliate: They went out and bought a carton of eggs, snuck up on the bullies and made their own attack - feeling victorious as they drove away. A group of bullies taunted him and his friends with homophobic slurs, then pelted them with eggs. Tim Gee had a transformative experience as a teenager.
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