A while ago, I was challenged to name my peace heroes. This particular professor of mine in Northern Ireland asked us, “in a world so full of war heroes, who are your peace heroes?” There was only one stipulation; we could not name the usual suspects. No Gandhi, no King, no Parks. Immediately, one name came to my mind: Sharp.
As far as mainstream advocates for non-violence go, Gene Sharp is not extremely popular. He has never led a non-violent revolution. He has never toppled a dictator with words. He has never led millions to their destinies. At least not directly. In 1973, Sharp wroteThe Politics of Non-Violent Struggle. This 800 page, three part series lays out the historical and philosophical underpinnings of non-violent protest. It is arguable that every non-violent revolution since the early 1970’s has had Gene Sharp to thank. Otpur; the non-violent, youth led revolution that toppled Slobodan Milosevic’s government was directly trained by Sharp and his colleagues.
And while I am
reserving the theories of non-violence for a later topic, I want to bring out one of Sharp’s theories. It is something I have been struggling with myself recently: the location of power and authority.Sharp sees the modern power structure as a hierarchy. At the top, we have political elites, corporate executives, etc. In the middle, we see the bureaucrats, police officers and managers. And at the bottom are the citizen masses. You have your average voters and folks just trying to make a buck from day to day. (Graph 1)
In the traditional world-view of government structures, we see th
e power flowing down from the top to the bottom. Political and economic elites have made it to the top through some sort of merit. Their status at the top gives them the power to rule those at the bottom. (Graph 2)However, Sharp turns it around. He knows that those at the top are there under the consent of those at the bottom—at least in a democratic society. He has turned power from a top/down relationship to a bottom/up. This is the basis of the American Revolution. Our Founding Fathers knew that government was a social contract between the governors and the governed. And when the needs of the people were not being met by the work of the governing elite, the
governors were to be changed. (Graph 3)This is my challenge to you. Stop waiting for your leadership. You are the leadership. Let our peacemaking be our own. And let the leadership for it be bottom/up rather than top/down. I am encouraging and empowering you to live your passions for peace.
"Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say: This is my community, and it is my responsibility to make it better. Interweave all these communities and you really have an America that is back on its feet again. I really think we are gonna have to reassess what constitutes a 'hero'."
-- Studs Terkel
