Nonviolent Conflict and Comunication — at Street Level
by: Dave Belden on July 19th, 2010 | 9 Comments »
Edwin Rutsch is videotaping all kinds of people in political hotspots and asking them for their views about and experience of empathy. Today he is at a pro-Johannes Mehserle demonstration in Walnut Creek, an outlying Bay Area suburb. Mehserle is the San Francisco Bay Area transit policeman who killed an innocent, unarmed traveler in full view of dozens of people last year, and who was just convicted of involuntary manslaughter. After the verdict was announced on July 8 a great deal of anger was expressed on the streets of Oakland at the insufficiency of the verdict, and Edwin was there taping as well (he recommends #s 27, 29 and 34 to our readers): here is # 27, his brief interview with our own Nichola Torbett:
In this video Niochola deftly brings together two strands of nonviolent work that can seem to be working at odds with each other. Here she is talking about empathy for the police, while linking arms with fellow protesters against efforts by the police to minimize and disperse their collective energy. Many people would say she should only be expressing empathy with the system’s most obvious victims–racial minorities, low income people–not with the police; while others would say if she has empathy for everyone then she has no business taking sides, she should be with the empathy team that was at the event offering empathy to all. But she clearly states that she has empathy for all while opposing the system that hurts us all.
The posts on the Mehserle trial on Tikkun Daily have reflected different approaches that may appeal to different readers.
Miki Kashtan’s praised and promoted the empathy team going into the streets that day. I hear in this approach the idea that what is most needed in the world is connection between people; that from genuine connection and empathy will flow compassion (compassion meaning sharing the feelings of suffering with the other); and only when we have compassion for each other’s fears and hopes and other deep emotions will we make the the intellectual effort necessary to understand each other’s incompatible strategies and ideologies; and so from this be able construct–together with our ideological enemies–the strategies that will meet both our needs and their needs.
Josh Healey’s post before the verdict, Alana Price’s on the day of, and Josh’s report on his blog, After The Verdict, were just as committed to nonviolence as Miki’s post, but differed from it in focusing on an unjust system that must be changed. Their sympathies were very clearly with the protesters. Their model would be mobilizing the moral force of an MLK-era Civil Rights Movement to simultaneously protest the biases in the system and make them plain to the wider public as they witness forces of righteousness up against the power of the state which, as usual, is devoted to maintaining the status quo. In this view, the only way to make the entire system more empathic is to specify particular systemic changes that must be made — such as disarming transport police or ensuring peer representation on juries — and then organizing the most oppressed to go up against the powers supporting the status quo.
It’s the difference between nonviolent communication and nonviolent conflict. It seems to me that both are needed, but will be most successful in creating a more empathic social system when merged or working together, which is what I hear in Nichola’s words to Edwin.
It is a great irony that the elected mayor of Oakland is himself a disciple of the Civil Rights Movement, but in this instance he was clearly entirely focused on keeping the peace (preventing violence and destruction of property), rather than on using the opportunity to channel the anger — nonviolently — into protesting the injustices of the present system and promoting a system of restorative justice. Opportunity lost, Ron Dellums! And it may be an opportunity lost by the wider progressive community in Oakland, since no one seemed to be simultaneously presenting a strong and prominent vision of a restorative justice system, along with specific short term demands that could start to take us there, along with a sense of how to lead the crowd in the streets. But I wasn’t there and haven’t been able to learn from those who were trying to do exactly that who were there. I hope to do so.
A last comment on what Edwin is doing with these videos. He is not simply offering empathy to all. He is also and equally asking them to say what they think about empathy, what it means to them. So he is not merely reflecting their views. He is asking them to think, and he often asks probing questions, from a standpoint of curiosity not judgment, that pushes them to go further in seeing where empathy fits in their world view. For example, at a Tea Party rally, when someone says they are not into empathy, it has no bearing on their politics, Edwin probes into the grievances the Tea Partier has about liberals, and asks if they are not complaining essentially that the liberals have empathy for others but not for them, and when that is conceded, he wonders if empathy is not central to this person’s view of the world after all. Once the Tea Partier feels he or she is being empathized with, there is this possibility of establishing the central role of empathy, and the conversation can go on to talking about having empathy for others who also need it. A different kind of conversation begins to happen.
I’m continuing to observe this effort. Basically because I think there’s an assumption that I haven’t seen evidenced yet, that this: Once the Tea Partier feels he or she is being empathized with, there is this possibility of establishing the central role of empathy, leads to this: and the conversation can go on to talking about having empathy for others who also need it. A different kind of conversation begins to happen. This latter part I don’t see happening. I’ve never seen this happen.
Much like the notion that all humans are basically decent, or good, or divine, etc. It’s comforting to believe this. I know many people really really believe it. But within my own life path, I’ve seen it as the exception not the rule. I struggle with that. I’m looking hard now at those who believe this to be true, who believe that empathy is the key to gaining the result, justice via empathy. Down here, life just ain’t that simple. It’s pretty darned messy, pretty ugly, with moments of beauty in between all that garbage.
I just went over to Edwin’s site. If empathy and his belief in it motivated such a project, then, awesome; the data is needed and his work is heroic because it’s needed. But so far, I don’t see the result, I see data that corroborates a majority of evidence for the ugly, that facts on the ground, especially for the oppressed, are simply and plainly ugly. I see a whole lot of people who get it, who understand empathy doesn’t drive justice, power does, ownership does, and it’s mainly about which side is in power, those who have empathy (who are local, who can withold blind obedience in the face of what’s right and wrong to another human being, the exceptions to the Rule(rs)) and those who do not have any empathy or the care to use it, who serve as the arm of the oppressor with a clear or at least silent conscience. (I worked with the NY state police (IAD) in the late 1980′s… I KNOW cop culture from the inside. I know LA County Sheriffs and LAPD officers a decade plus onward… cop culture has gotten worse, more paramilitarized, more toxic, more lethal, more callous and intentionally abusive and a much clearer and cleaner conscience about being so)
I don’t yet see a conversation from those who stand guard over and enforce the strong hand of the State changing, heck, I don’t even see a conversation from them. At all. But maybe there’s just not enough data in yet. Things need to evolve more.
I’m waiting on that data. I’m trying to ask those questions too. They’re good questions.
Jack
Thanks for the response.
If I understand you correctly, you feel that those in power will not support a culture of empathy, but want to hold on to power. You would like to see evidence that those in power are willing to support and embody empathy before you support such an effort and work at trying to build that kind of culture?
Barack Obama actually ran on the value of empathy. Have you seen this video?
http://cultureofempathy.com/Obama/VideoClips.htm
Yes, I’ve seen that video and I’m not convinced of the sincerity or authenticity of it. The whole campaign was, for me, a transparent marketing gimmick… we’ve seen it before.
Oops, I should have answered your question first. No, I’m not willing to wait for those in power to get on board, but my lived experience tells me unless they do, there will be no realization of the goal; the result will be thwarted by the powerful in a system rigged by the powerful to retain power at all costs. OTOH, I’m still trying to figure out the practical function and application of empathy as anything more than an emotional signal or marker. Miki Kasdan has a piece today that started to finally reveal more about the nature of empathy and fear but again, I just don’t understand how it functions to achieve the desired result. As many of the video clips vividly portray.
I think Obama’s a swell guy but NOT a good example of empathy being effective amongst those in power. The owning class is still well grounded in their owning privilege and mode of thinking about those who do not share their experience. Actions are indeed MUCH louder than words.
Jack, My first response is to agree with what you are saying: that there isn’t a lot of evidence yet. Or is there? Just how has it happened that a majority of people came around to accepting things like interracial marriage, and now we are achieving or approaching majorities on gay marriage? The society-wide acceptance of LGBT people has far to go still but has gone at a pace it would have been impossible to imagine or predict a generation ago. Although a lot of people had huge bust-ups in their families and workplaces when they came out, and communications were cut off, people deeply hurt, in so many other cases — or later in their lives after the bust-ups — people have worked hard to have empathy for each other, reflecting their prior deep connection, often between adult children and their parents, and people with deep prejudices have struggled to rethink some very basic assumptions about life and morality. The same happened with feminist issues and race issues, though one of the greater difficulties with race issues is that they typically don’t happen in the same family units: a daughter comes out as a feminist to her parents, a son as a gay man or trans woman to his parents, and the bonds of love are there already to some extent to be worked with. Between the races — except with interracial marriages when a racist has a grandchild who is half of another race — such bonds have to get forged outside the family, in the workplace, the army, volunteer work done together, etc which is not so easy. The rapid progress of GLBTQ acceptance has resulted from a mixture of the courage of coming out, of the rethinking of the cultural ideas (and the novels, movies etc that give an empathic wiondow into LGBTQ people’s lives and perspectives), and the connections between people that meant they had some empathy for each other, some reason to want to understand. The empathy part is crucial.
That’s vital to remember. But it is happening within class structures not across them. That’s what I’m saying. We can make progress but there’s an as-yet impenetrable barrier to finally realizing the result: class and the uppers’ in particular’s inability to use empathy as a functioning tool. Of course, there’s me, a lower class person, who really also doesn’t understand empathy’s function as a bridge or resolution tool across class lines. I won’t say it’s all one sided, but even if I eventually understand how this works, and I know I will eventually, because I’m not amongst the owning class, my progress will be utterly irrelevant on the bigger canvas. In contrast, someone from the owning class, in a rigged top-down power-retention system run for by and of the owning class, getting the function of empathy as a tool to achieve the result will have the relevant effect on the bigger canvas.
In terms of the smaller canvas, I’ll try to make the movement in social shift towards acceptance of mixed stuff more of a feature of the success column. Thanks, Dave.
I just came back from the Walnut Creek pro Mehserle rally. There was actually a larger counter rally there as well and a heated shouting match between the two sides which were actually standing toe to toe in some cases. I and Sherry went to all sides, and directly between the sides, asking about empathy, as well as, listened to what people had to say.
A lot of people actually started in heated dialog between each other. An anarchist and a Richmond City off duty woman police officer for example. It was good and amazing to see people getting into dialog. I could see a natural innate tendency of many people to want dialog. When I asked people how we can build a culture of empathy they often said ‘get all sides together to talk in a less charged environment’.. There’s just not a lot of forums where that can happen.
Several black protesters talked about the lack of trust in the police, but they wanted the police to come to their churches to engage in dialogue and get to know each other. The Richmond Police Officer said she was willing to talk with anyone anytime.
I should have the video online in a day or so and will post the link.
Go Edwin!
I really don’t understand AT ALL why the cops should hold ANY kind of rally AT ALL! From Andrew Meyer being tasered, to Cynthia McKinney being tackled, to people in Codepink being arrested at a State of the Union address, from an ABC reporter being choked by the Chief (!!!) of the Denver, Colorado PD, to the mess at the RNC convention in Minneapolis, to the LAPD metro and Rampart Divisions, to Cindy Sheehan, to the Indiana State Police messing up the situation in Shelbyville, to the Cops shooting a man in the chest in Ohio, to the Secret Service having a part-time librarian standing on a PUBLIC sidewalk holding a sign saying, “McCain equals Bush” arrested for trespassing, to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. getting arrested inside his own house, to the Cambridge, Mass. cops determining that BOTH parties were to blame (they will NEVER have the objectivity, honor, guts, or anthing to say, “We, the cops, messed up; We the cops are completely to blame; nobody else did anything stupid; WE did idiotic things.”), to even me (I was a 2000 Census Enumerator, got a cocked, possibly loaded double-barreled shotgun pressed against my forehead; The Census Bureau did nothing, my local cops did nothing, my Sheriff’s Dept. did nothing. I know this is a “peace-loving” web site, and I agree with MOST of what is being said here, but SOMETIMES somebody needs to be “Permanently Removed” (fired, then punished for twice the max. criminal penalty for a civilian/BANNED from Law en”farce”ment/EXECUTED OUTRIGHT!!) from everybody’s payroll; it makes us look like bad bosses if we continually allow these twits to occupy public jobs (which ARE public property, by the way…) I don’t hate cops; I just hate bad cops, but they protect themselves from us, which, in my opinion, MAKES ALL OF THEM BAD COPS!!!! If anybody wants to contact me my Email is : ScottDeutsch@mail.wowmail.com