"The master's tools will not dismantle the master's house." -- Audre' Lourde, celebrated African-American poet of the 20th century

"The master's tools will not dismantle the master's house." -- Audre' Lourde, celebrated African-American poet of the 20th century
 
In view of The Stanger's recent (accurately) unfavorable report about Occupy Seattle and the approaching Martin Luther King Day weekend, 
I herewith propose a working, highly pragmatic definition of violence to be considered by the current Nonviolent and Decolonize Seattle/Diversity of Tactics factions within Occupy Seattle that may help resolve the current corrosive controversy between them:
 
Violence is the disproportionate use of force, whether psychic or physical, whether intrapersonal, interpersonal or institutional -- to effect power over rather than power with.
 
By this definition, last week's action of a the recently widowed child-bride in Oklahoma who -- after calmly conferring with 911 dispatchers -- shot and killed one of two armed male intruders breaking into her trailer home while high on drugs to defend the lives of herself and her infant son -- was less violent than the OS general assembly I attended where I saw the resolution for nonviolence voted upon in December.  Here is why:
 
1)  The resolution for nonviolence egregiously omitted the mention of psychic interpersonal violence, which is rampant among activist movements, obviously including Occupy Seattle.  This is a dirty little secret that most activists have heretofore been unwilling to face and deal with, both within themselves and within their movements.  
     Most activists understand the reality of institutional violence, or they would not be activists; however, most of them remain clueless about interpersonal emotional and verbal violence keeping them divided and ineffective, to the redounding benefit of the ruling 1%.  This not only prevents them from being the effective change they wish to see in the world, but actually perpetuates the patriarchal pyramid paradigm that they claim to decry. 
2)  The OS General Assembly operates on a variation of parliamentary procedure, the same form of psychically violent win/lose group process being used by dysfunctional governmental legislative bodies in our present fraudulent system of representative democracy. The master's tools will not dismantle the master's house.  
     The OS General Assembly therefore needs to operate using some form of nonviolent consensus/consent-based group process, not by easily manipulated, psychically/
interpersonally/institutionally violent win/lose parliamentary procedure.  The OS General Assembly needs to start researching the options for such nonviolent group processs now.
3)   The abovementioned working, highly pragmatic definition does not seek to eliminate 
the use of physical force, but the disproportionate use of any force, whether physical or psychic.  The present use of mass mind control by the corporate-controlled media and US military black operations/CIA is an example of the disproportionate use of psychic force.
     Sometimes the proportionate use of physical force is perfectly justified and actually nonviolent, like in the recent example just cited, as well as in defensively disarming those who would do harm without using any more physical or psychic force than is necessary, whether by interpersonal/international negotiation, the extremely powerful use of the human voice (kiai) that was recently employed by the retired African-American Marine seargeant in successfully defending OWS demonstrators from assaultive members of the NYPD, or by defensive physical martial arts moves being offered by some members of the OS Diversity of Tactics group.  
     I myself used all of the above in my former life as a member of an independent esoteric Christian order who helped found the network of women's/family/homeless shelters that now exists in America to help stop interpersonal and institutional violence.
4)   Even nonviolence is the use of force; but it is psychological and moral force, as opposed to physical force, and it is ultimately more powerful than physical force because it can include and transcend it.  Those using physical or psychic violence, particularly weapons, must be far more afraid of you than you of them, or they would not be hiding behind the use of such weapons.  This includes those OS activists currently engaging in verbal and emotional abuse as a psychic bludgeon against other OS activists.
     Nonviolence acknowledges that offensive weapons are merely technologically enhanced extensions of human mental and physical capabilities, from which those who are truly self-mastered can increasingly abstain.  This is taught at the highest levels of the martial arts, which makes those in OS who are dishonoring their martial arts training and themselves by engaging in verbal and emotional violence against other activists all the more culpable for their actions.
5)   Members of the Decolonize Seattle/Diversity of Tactics -- which, significantly, have the largest amount of diversity of OS membership -- and the more homogeneous Nonviolent faction need to meet at a neutral location and talk out their differences as soon as possible.  
     Those coming from the Nonviolent faction need be trained in deep listening skills and nonviolent communication.  They need to take a block of time to simply listen and ask questions of their brothers and sisters in the DS/DOT group.  
     After the Nonviolence group members process what they are told, there needs to be at least a second block of time spent at a neutral location where there is a discussion about what the DS/DOT group has said, so that some sort of consensus about diversity of tactics and nonviolence can be reached.  
     This is not going to happen using the pychically/interpersonally/institutionally violent win/lose process of parliamentary voting, and it is certainly not going to happen if the present level of emotional/verbal violence within Occupy Seattle continues without resolution.
6)   As has been previously stated by others, if this psychic interpersonal violence continues among the activists of Occupy Seattle, we are going are going to be responsible for driving away otherwise sympathetic parties from what could be the greatest movement for human liberation in the history of this planet. I, for one, do not want to incur such karma, and therefore hope you will consider the suggestions just made about how to avoid it.
 
Your sister,
 
Rebecca Em Campbell
Occupy Seattle Nonviolence Working Group