The Power of Peace

There is a surplus of anger, desperation, futility, depression, fury and isolation in our country right now.  It's the worst I remember, even during the Vietnam debacle.
I've advocated- rather unpopularly -that peaceful resistance is the most powerful and effective response to the sources of these intense emotions.  Steeped in affluenza, racism, fascism, nationalism and all the other sick isms, if we're not furious then we're not paying attention.  I don't need to catalog all the evil things done to whom by whom; we're deluged with that.  The fury is justified, OK?  So when I say to someone that peaceful resistance is more effective than violence (bodily injury and property damage) what they hear is negation of their fury, denial of their despair, minimizing of their suffering.

That isn't my intention. 
 As Erica Chenowith's research proves, peaceful resistance has been more than twice as effective as violence in creating change.  She studied all such events, worldwide, since 1906 to reach that conclusion, causing a 180 degree pivot in her former beliefs.  Please read her material and watch her TED talk:  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=erica+chenoweth+ted+talk
I don't know about you but I don't recall ever making a good decision in the middle of anger.  Granted, anger is an action emotion, an indication that action is needed.  It is a great motivator while being an abysmally poor judge of right action.  Right action takes all of our faculties, our anger, our hearts, our minds, our relationships.  And that's why violence doesn't work:

• Violence severely limits who can and will join you in your rebellion.  Why not adopt a strategy that can involve children, our elders, the reticent, first-time activists?  "Many people won't turn up unless they expect safety in numbers" (Erica Chenoweth)
• The border between oppressors and the oppressed is wide and gray.  A cop may refuse to shoot rubber bullets into a peaceful crowd if he knows his daughter might be there.  Even the most corrupt enablers of dictator-wannabes have families, friends & associates who love (and fear and or hate) them and eventually garner the courage to speak up and act out.
• As a result of these two factors, nonviolent campaigns are four times larger and much more inclusive & diverse than violent ones.

Your Constructive Comments are Welcome!

Universal Basic Income is Welfare

The idea of a universal basic income has found growing support in Silicon Valley as robots threaten to radically change the nature of work.

Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar is the latest tech bigwig to get behind the concept. His philanthropic investment firm, the Omidyar Network, announced Wednesday that it will give nearly half a million dollars to a group testing the policy in Kenya.

SEE ALSO: Could 2017 be the year people take universal basic income seriously?

Universal basic income is the notion that a government should guarantee every citizen a yearly sum of money, no strings attached. The thinking is that such a program would relieve economic stress as automation technology severely reduces the demand for labor.

Theories along these lines have existed for centuries, but their proponents have never had much luck convincing governments to give them a shot. Thus, the only data on real-world effects come from a few scattered experiments throughout the years.

GiveDirectly is looking to add to that knowledge with one of the biggest trials of a basic income system in history. 

The group recently launched a 12-year pilot program in which it plans to give 6,000 Kenyans regular stipends for the entire duration. Around 20,000 more will receive at least some form of cash transfer.

The Omidyar Network is hoping the study will help advance the debate around basic income from broad theoretical terms to more practical considerations.

"While the discussion has generated a lot of heat, it hasn’t produced very much light," wrote the Omidyar Network's Mike Kubzansky and Tracy Williams in a blog post announcing the pledge. "There is very little research and empirical evidence on how and when UBI could best be used."

Omidyar isn't the only tech mogul backing efforts to take the theory from paper to practice. 

Startup incubator Y-Combinator is in the midst of one such study in the Bay Area, and its president, Sam Altman, and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes have kicked $10 million towards another research project.

A number of other tests have also cropped up in recent months as universal basic income finds more mainstream acceptance. 

-Patrick Kulp, Mashable  

Your Constructive Comments are Welcome!