TEDxExeter
Scilla Elworthy: Fighting with nonviolence
Filmed:
Readability: 3.9
1,241,517 views
How do you deal with a bully without becoming a thug? In this wise and soulful talk, peace activist Scilla Elworthy maps out the skills we need -- as nations and individuals -- to fight extreme force without using force in return. To answer the question of why and how nonviolence works, she evokes historical heroes -- Aung San Suu Kyi, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela -- and the personal philosophies that powered their peaceful protests.
Scilla Elworthy - Peace builder
Scilla Elworthy founded Oxford Research Group in 1982, to promote effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers and their opponents. Full bio
Scilla Elworthy founded Oxford Research Group in 1982, to promote effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers and their opponents. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
In half a century of trying to help prevent wars,
0
360
4134
00:20
there's one question that never leaves me:
1
4494
3515
00:23
How do we deal with extreme violence
2
8025
3700
00:27
without using force in return?
3
11725
3501
00:31
When you're faced with brutality,
4
15226
2551
00:33
whether it's a child facing a bully on a playground
5
17777
2916
00:36
or domestic violence --
6
20693
1700
00:38
or, on the streets of Syria today,
7
22393
2916
00:41
facing tanks and shrapnel,
8
25309
2551
00:43
what's the most effective thing to do?
9
27860
3347
00:47
Fight back? Give in?
10
31207
2598
00:49
Use more force?
11
33805
3341
00:53
This question: "How do I deal with a bully
12
37176
3962
00:57
without becoming a thug in return?"
13
41138
3750
01:00
has been with me ever since I was a child.
14
44888
3016
01:03
I remember I was about 13,
15
47904
2551
01:06
glued to a grainy black and white television in my parents' living room
16
50455
4986
01:11
as Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest,
17
55441
4265
01:15
and kids not much older than me
18
59706
2799
01:18
were throwing themselves at the tanks
19
62505
2501
01:20
and getting mown down.
20
65006
2168
01:23
And I rushed upstairs and started packing my suitcase.
21
67174
3801
01:26
And my mother came up and said, "What on Earth are you doing?"
22
70975
2714
01:29
And I said, "I'm going to Budapest."
23
73689
2282
01:31
And she said, "What on Earth for?"
24
75971
2634
01:34
And I said, "Kids are getting killed there.
25
78605
2049
01:36
There's something terrible happening."
26
80654
1852
01:38
And she said, "Don't be so silly."
27
82506
2017
01:40
And I started to cry.
28
84523
2600
01:43
And she got it, she said,
29
87123
2215
01:45
"Okay, I see it's serious.
30
89338
1767
01:47
You're much too young to help.
31
91105
2834
01:49
You need training. I'll help you.
32
93939
2635
01:52
But just unpack your suitcase."
33
96574
2165
01:54
And so I got some training
34
98739
3566
01:58
and went and worked in Africa during most of my 20s.
35
102305
3933
02:02
But I realized that what I really needed to know
36
106238
3701
02:05
I couldn't get from training courses.
37
109939
2399
02:08
I wanted to understand
38
112338
2186
02:10
how violence, how oppression, works.
39
114524
4450
02:14
And what I've discovered since is this:
40
118974
4948
02:19
Bullies use violence in three ways.
41
123922
4066
02:23
They use political violence to intimidate,
42
127988
5303
02:29
physical violence to terrorize
43
133291
5414
02:34
and mental or emotional violence to undermine.
44
138705
7524
02:42
And only very rarely in very few cases
45
146229
3227
02:45
does it work to use more violence.
46
149456
3516
02:48
Nelson Mandela went to jail believing in violence,
47
152972
6209
02:55
and 27 years later
48
159181
2024
02:57
he and his colleagues
49
161205
1983
02:59
had slowly and carefully
50
163188
1985
03:01
honed the skills, the incredible skills, that they needed
51
165173
4966
03:06
to turn one of the most vicious governments the world has known
52
170139
4200
03:10
into a democracy.
53
174339
1866
03:12
And they did it in a total devotion to non-violence.
54
176205
4732
03:16
They realized that using force against force
55
180937
7167
03:24
doesn't work.
56
188104
5196
03:29
So what does work?
57
193300
2193
03:31
Over time I've collected about a half-dozen methods
58
195493
3469
03:34
that do work -- of course there are many more --
59
198962
1833
03:36
that do work and that are effective.
60
200795
2346
03:39
And the first is
61
203141
1367
03:40
that the change that has to take place
62
204508
2518
03:42
has to take place here, inside me.
63
207026
4465
03:47
It's my response, my attitude, to oppression
64
211491
4100
03:51
that I've got control over,
65
215591
2851
03:54
and that I can do something about.
66
218442
2300
03:56
And what I need to develop is self-knowledge to do that.
67
220742
4183
04:00
That means I need to know how I tick,
68
224925
2499
04:03
when I collapse,
69
227424
2251
04:05
where my formidable points are,
70
229675
4334
04:09
where my weaker points are.
71
234009
2498
04:12
When do I give in?
72
236507
1468
04:13
What will I stand up for?
73
237975
5263
04:19
And meditation or self-inspection
74
243238
5139
04:24
is one of the ways -- again it's not the only one --
75
248377
2534
04:26
it's one of the ways
76
250911
1118
04:27
of gaining this kind of inner power.
77
252029
4117
04:32
And my heroine here -- like Satish's --
78
256146
2482
04:34
is Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma.
79
258628
3033
04:37
She was leading a group of students
80
261661
3633
04:41
on a protest in the streets of Rangoon.
81
265294
2400
04:43
They came around a corner faced with a row of machine guns.
82
267694
4183
04:47
And she realized straight away
83
271877
1167
04:48
that the soldiers with their fingers shaking on the triggers
84
273044
3918
04:52
were more scared than the student protesters behind her.
85
276962
5698
04:58
But she told the students to sit down.
86
282660
2705
05:01
And she walked forward with such calm and such clarity
87
285365
7296
05:08
and such total lack of fear
88
292661
3450
05:12
that she could walk right up to the first gun,
89
296111
4100
05:16
put her hand on it and lower it.
90
300211
4076
05:24
And no one got killed.
91
308564
3518
05:27
So that's what the mastery of fear can do --
92
312097
3942
05:31
not only faced with machine guns,
93
316039
2301
05:34
but if you meet a knife fight in the street.
94
318340
4166
05:38
But we have to practice.
95
322506
2365
05:40
So what about our fear?
96
324871
1901
05:42
I have a little mantra.
97
326772
4954
05:47
My fear grows fat
98
331726
3441
05:51
on the energy I feed it.
99
335167
2217
05:53
And if it grows very big
100
337384
2287
05:55
it probably happens.
101
339671
2362
05:57
So we all know the three o'clock in the morning syndrome,
102
342033
4435
06:02
when something you've been worrying about wakes you up --
103
346468
2716
06:05
I see a lot of people --
104
349184
2390
06:07
and for an hour you toss and turn,
105
351574
3610
06:11
it gets worse and worse,
106
355184
1678
06:12
and by four o'clock you're pinned to the pillow
107
356862
3122
06:15
by a monster this big.
108
359984
2203
06:18
The only thing to do
109
362187
1934
06:20
is to get up, make a cup of tea
110
364121
1834
06:21
and sit down with the fear like a child beside you.
111
365955
5316
06:27
You're the adult.
112
371271
2481
06:29
The fear is the child.
113
373752
1887
06:31
And you talk to the fear
114
375639
1445
06:32
and you ask it what it wants, what it needs.
115
377084
3186
06:36
How can this be made better?
116
380270
4617
06:40
How can the child feel stronger?
117
384887
1750
06:42
And you make a plan.
118
386637
1449
06:43
And you say, "Okay, now we're going back to sleep.
119
388086
2005
06:45
Half-past seven, we're getting up and that's what we're going to do."
120
390091
3767
06:49
I had one of these 3 a.m. episodes on Sunday --
121
393858
5732
06:55
paralyzed with fear at coming to talk to you.
122
399606
3985
06:59
(Laughter)
123
403591
1998
07:01
So I did the thing.
124
405589
1507
07:02
I got up, made the cup of tea, sat down with it, did it all
125
407096
4129
07:07
and I'm here -- still partly paralyzed, but I'm here.
126
411225
4156
07:11
(Applause)
127
415381
4399
07:15
So that's fear. What about anger?
128
419780
2516
07:18
Wherever there is injustice there's anger.
129
422296
4402
07:22
But anger is like gasoline,
130
426698
2848
07:25
and if you spray it around and somebody lights a match,
131
429546
3454
07:28
you've got an inferno.
132
433000
2000
07:30
But anger as an engine -- in an engine -- is powerful.
133
435000
5117
07:36
If we can put our anger inside an engine,
134
440117
4166
07:40
it can drive us forward,
135
444283
1783
07:41
it can get us through the dreadful moments
136
446066
2988
07:44
and it can give us real inner power.
137
449054
3963
07:48
And I learned this in my work
138
453017
3118
07:52
with nuclear weapon policy-makers.
139
456135
2264
07:54
Because at the beginning I was so outraged
140
458399
2719
07:57
at the dangers they were exposing us to
141
461118
3316
08:00
that I just wanted to argue and blame and make them wrong.
142
464434
5134
08:05
Totally ineffective.
143
469568
2533
08:08
In order to develop a dialogue for change
144
472101
3749
08:11
we have to deal with our anger.
145
475850
2073
08:13
It's okay to be angry with the thing --
146
477923
4677
08:18
the nuclear weapons in this case --
147
482600
2100
08:20
but it is hopeless to be angry with the people.
148
484700
3851
08:24
They are human beings just like us.
149
488551
2615
08:27
And they're doing what they think is best.
150
491166
2651
08:29
And that's the basis on which we have to talk with them.
151
493817
3983
08:33
So that's the third one, anger.
152
497800
2917
08:36
And it brings me to the crux
153
500717
1400
08:38
of what's going on, or what I perceive as going on,
154
502117
3234
08:41
in the world today,
155
505351
1065
08:42
which is that last century was top-down power.
156
506416
4018
08:46
It was still governments telling people what to do.
157
510434
4265
08:50
This century there's a shift.
158
514699
2035
08:52
It's bottom-up or grassroots power.
159
516734
3883
08:56
It's like mushrooms coming through concrete.
160
520617
3216
08:59
It's people joining up with people, as Bundy just said, miles away
161
523833
6681
09:06
to bring about change.
162
530514
2273
09:08
And Peace Direct spotted quite early on
163
532787
4266
09:12
that local people in areas of very hot conflict
164
537053
3551
09:16
know what to do.
165
540604
2436
09:18
They know best what to do.
166
543040
2216
09:21
So Peace Direct gets behind them to do that.
167
545256
3282
09:24
And the kind of thing they're doing
168
548538
2199
09:26
is demobilizing militias,
169
550737
3168
09:29
rebuilding economies,
170
553905
2603
09:32
resettling refugees,
171
556508
2350
09:34
even liberating child soldiers.
172
558858
5501
09:40
And they have to risk their lives almost every day
173
564359
2866
09:43
to do this.
174
567225
3219
09:46
And what they've realized
175
570444
3814
09:50
is that using violence in the situations they operate in
176
574258
4933
09:55
is not only less humane,
177
579191
4519
09:59
but it's less effective
178
583710
2135
10:01
than using methods that connect people with people, that rebuild.
179
585845
6531
10:08
And I think that the U.S. military
180
592376
3932
10:12
is finally beginning to get this.
181
596308
6880
10:19
Up to now their counter-terrorism policy
182
603188
2709
10:21
has been to kill insurgents at almost any cost,
183
605897
4833
10:26
and if civilians get in the way,
184
610730
3203
10:29
that's written as "collateral damage."
185
613933
4266
10:34
And this is so infuriating and humiliating
186
618199
6733
10:40
for the population of Afghanistan,
187
624932
2350
10:43
that it makes the recruitment for al-Qaeda very easy,
188
627282
4348
10:47
when people are so disgusted by, for example,
189
631630
3170
10:50
the burning of the Koran.
190
634800
2379
10:53
So the training of the troops has to change.
191
637179
3001
10:56
And I think there are signs that it is beginning to change.
192
640180
5108
11:01
The British military have always been much better at this.
193
645288
2784
11:03
But there is one magnificent example for them to take their cue from,
194
648072
5682
11:09
and that's a brilliant U.S. lieutenant colonel
195
653754
3168
11:12
called Chris Hughes.
196
656922
1665
11:14
And he was leading his men down the streets of Najaf --
197
658587
4217
11:18
in Iraq actually --
198
662804
2168
11:20
and suddenly people were pouring out of the houses on either side of the road,
199
664972
5033
11:25
screaming, yelling, furiously angry,
200
670005
4598
11:30
and surrounded these very young troops who were completely terrified,
201
674603
4468
11:34
didn't know what was going on, couldn't speak Arabic.
202
679071
2500
11:37
And Chris Hughes strode into the middle of the throng
203
681571
4250
11:41
with his weapon above his head, pointing at the ground,
204
685821
3869
11:45
and he said, "Kneel."
205
689690
1698
11:47
And these huge soldiers
206
691388
2800
11:50
with their backpacks and their body armor,
207
694188
2633
11:52
wobbled to the ground.
208
696821
4474
11:57
And complete silence fell.
209
701295
6085
12:03
And after about two minutes,
210
707380
2558
12:05
everybody moved aside and went home.
211
709938
4276
12:10
Now that to me is wisdom in action.
212
714214
5482
12:15
In the moment, that's what he did.
213
719696
4166
12:19
And it's happening everywhere now.
214
723862
5762
12:25
You don't believe me?
215
729624
1909
12:27
Have you asked yourselves
216
731533
3659
12:31
why and how so many dictatorships have collapsed
217
735192
4440
12:35
over the last 30 years?
218
739632
3351
12:38
Dictatorships in Czechoslovakia, East Germany,
219
742983
5067
12:43
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
220
748050
4215
12:48
Mali, Madagascar,
221
752265
2886
12:51
Poland, the Philippines,
222
755151
3782
12:54
Serbia, Slovenia, I could go on,
223
758933
5083
12:59
and now Tunisia and Egypt.
224
764016
4590
13:04
And this hasn't just happened.
225
768606
4050
13:08
A lot of it is due to a book
226
772656
3151
13:11
written by an 80-year-old man in Boston, Gene Sharp.
227
775807
4465
13:16
He wrote a book called "From Dictatorship to Democracy"
228
780272
4017
13:20
with 81 methodologies for non-violent resistance.
229
784289
5396
13:25
And it's been translated into 26 languages.
230
789685
2087
13:27
It's flown around the world.
231
791772
2084
13:29
And it's being used by young people and older people everywhere,
232
793856
7187
13:36
because it works and it's effective.
233
801043
5422
13:42
So this is what gives me hope --
234
806465
4558
13:46
not just hope, this is what makes me feel very positive right now.
235
811023
3753
13:50
Because finally human beings are getting it.
236
814776
4016
13:54
We're getting practical, doable methodologies
237
818792
7618
14:02
to answer my question:
238
826410
1584
14:03
How do we deal with a bully without becoming a thug?
239
827994
6302
14:10
We're using the kind of skills that I've outlined:
240
834296
4410
14:14
inner power -- the development of inner power -- through self-knowledge,
241
838706
3718
14:18
recognizing and working with our fear,
242
842424
3566
14:21
using anger as a fuel,
243
845990
3518
14:25
cooperating with others,
244
849508
2565
14:27
banding together with others,
245
852073
1935
14:29
courage,
246
854008
2182
14:32
and most importantly, commitment to active non-violence.
247
856190
6969
14:39
Now I don't just believe in non-violence.
248
863159
4114
14:43
I don't have to believe in it.
249
867273
2935
14:46
I see evidence everywhere of how it works.
250
870208
3550
14:49
And I see that we, ordinary people,
251
873758
6050
14:55
can do what Aung San Suu Kyi and Ghandi and Mandela did.
252
879808
6318
15:02
We can bring to an end
253
886126
2723
15:04
the bloodiest century that humanity has ever known.
254
888849
4999
15:09
And we can organize to overcome oppression
255
893848
7941
15:17
by opening our hearts
256
901789
2618
15:20
as well as strengthening this incredible resolve.
257
904407
5850
15:26
And this open-heartedness is exactly what I've experienced
258
910257
4600
15:30
in the entire organization of this gathering since I got here yesterday.
259
914857
4434
15:35
Thank you.
260
919291
2121
15:37
(Applause)
261
921412
4569
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Scilla Elworthy - Peace builderScilla Elworthy founded Oxford Research Group in 1982, to promote effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers and their opponents.
Why you should listen
When Scilla Elworthy was 13, she sat in front of her television set watching as Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest. Immediately she started packing her bags. "What are you doing?" her mother said. "I'm going to Budapest," she said. "They're doing something awful and I have to go." Years later, Elworthy is a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and a recipient of the Niwano Peace Prize. In 2002 Elworthy founded Peace Direct, which supports local action against conflict, and in 1982 founded Oxford Research Group, a think-tank devoted to developing effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers and their critics. Beginning in 2005 she helped set up The Elders initiative as an adviser to Sir Richard Branson, Peter Gabriel and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Scilla Elworthy | Speaker | TED.com