Goodness

The term kindness was coined by Martin Arnold and represents an attempt to translate the term satyagraha from Mahatma Gandhi into German and to avoid the term non-violence , which is too narrow.

“The power of kindness means more than not exercising violence. Kindness is a possible element or a possible aspect of the process of active conflict management. "

- Martin Arnold (1990)

The power of benevolence includes both the development and application of nonviolent actions in the political arena and always a decision for a value (justice, freedom, etc.) as well as the responsibility of the individual to make value-based decisions and to bear the consequences of these decisions. That requires courage, "soul force", the working of a force.

Kindness is characterized by a number of properties that determine attitude, way of life, relationships, actions, actions and communication: patient, constructive, creative, active and offensive, changing, just, diverse, truthful, non-hurtful, process-based, self-determined, voluntary ( Birgit Berg).

The power of kindness research, as an answer to the generally admonished research on the causes of peace, deals with questions that enable a systematic determination of nonviolence or power of kindness. A research program by Martin Arnold asks about individual prerequisites, attitudes and attitudes, interpretation patterns and strategies for action, effects, general and situational factors, change factors and necessary modifications of the known conflict resolution models.

Origin of the term

The term benevolence came about because “nonviolence” does not adequately reflect the concept of Gandhi and others who have successfully campaigned for more justice, freedom and humanity. Gandhi used two expressions for his martial arts in Indian: Ahimsa and Satjāgrah (the second a is spoken long, English spelling: satyagraha). So far, however, he and others have only translated Ahimsa = not to hurt into English: non-violence . This expression has been translated into other languages. In addition, Gandhi created the new Sanskrit word Satjāgrah in 1908. He explained it as love-force , truth-force and soul-force and as a force that is born from truth and love. British friends of Gandhi also used the term goodness-force . Goodness is the translation of Satjāgrah into German.

The term has been used in peace research and the peace movement since the mid-1990s. It describes the force that comes into play in non-violent action to reduce social grievances and is decisive for its success. The power of kindness research is a sub-area of ​​peace research and examines elements, condition factors, possible applications and limits of this power. The psychotherapist Dr. Robert Antoch, the psychologist Burkhard Bläsi and most recently the Essen peace researcher Martin Arnold . Arnold compared the concepts of nonviolent action by Hildegard Goss-Mayr , Mohandas K. Gandhi and Bart de Ligt and described their common notion of how the power of kindness works. With an ideal model he answers the question: How does a nonviolent approach in social and political conflicts lead to success?

Non-violence , non- violence, arrived in the West primarily as an appeal or demand “No violence!”. This distracts from the essence of Gandhi's martial arts: from the power of change , as the Quakers have long said. Speaking of the power of kindness and the kindness of proceeding brings the strength of Gandhi's concept into awareness. Gandhi did not see himself as an apostle of nonviolence, but as an experimenter with a power, as an experimenter of the power of kindness.

The mode of action of the force of goodness

Basic assumptions

Those who act kindly start from the assumption that all people tend, at least unconsciously, to act benevolently and fairly. In other words: the power to act with kindness is inherent in all people. In Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this force is called Reason, Conscience and Spirit of Fraternity. The willingness and inclination to cooperate has been rediscovered as an elementary category of being human in recent research, from biology and brain research to behavioral research, social psychology and others to neurology and psychiatry. Trust in the general human tendency towards benevolence and justice is the basis of the effectiveness of good action.

Orientation to the common good

The concept of goodness does not only apply to conflicts, but also to social and political grievances, that is, to generally recognizable deficiencies in freedom, justice or humanity. The model is oriented towards the common good according to the measure of the abundance of life for all. It is not suitable for the enforcement of particular interests and purely selfish goals, including the striving for political hegemony.

Stage model: from exercising personal responsibility to civil disobedience

The Essen peace researcher Martin Arnold describes the effect of the power of goodness on six levels with increasing difficulty. In practice, several levels can be taken at the same time, but no level may be skipped for high effectiveness. The concept also includes the self-critical evaluation of all activities.

• First stage : (recognize yourself and take risks)

Anyone who makes a positive contribution - individually or as a group - asks themselves first of all about their own share in the grievance and is prepared to take on costs or risks in order to help remedy it.

• Second stage : (Evaluation of the first activity and improvement of one's own options for action)

If the deficiency could not be remedied through activities of the first stage, the evaluation of the events and further efforts to reduce the deficiency follow. Strengthening and training one's own skills plays an important role in this (empowerment). This can also include personal development. If it is clear that other people besides the hitherto committed people are needed to remedy the grievance, activities of the third stage will take place.

• Third stage : (Working with others to reduce the grievances)

At this stage, the step is made towards the people who can make a significant contribution to reducing the grievances. All those involved in a grievance are viewed and addressed from the outset and consistently as potential allies to reduce the grievance, not as "opponents". (Fighting vocabulary against people does not match the benevolent approach.) Everyone, including those who are opponents in the matter, is trusted and expected to be able to act truthfully, fairly and responsibly. This attitude excludes deliberate harm to these people, including derogatory remarks about them in private and in public. If those addressed do not judge the situation to be a malady, the dialogue on this question is the first task. In dialogue it is important to distinguish between the people and their actions and not to label those responsible for the grievances negatively. For those who act kindly, on the other hand, positive actions or characteristics of the other participants are important, on the one hand to make contact with them easier, on the other hand so that they can be addressed more easily. With respect for the people, the criticism of their actions or their consequences is made very clear in the dialogue. In larger conflicts, the dispute continues on the next level.

• Fourth level : (Escalation I)

Involvement of the public and intensification of the effort. The group of supporters is broadened. Appeals or dramatic actions serve to encourage generally recognized persons and the public to also represent the cause. The dialogue with the other parties involved is thus continued in public. During actions, those involved avoid harming other people. If this cannot be avoided, the damage will be compensated as far as possible (example: opponents of genetically modified seeds remove the genetically modified seeds and then sow natural seeds in the fields). Such benevolent and fair arguments stimulate other people and the public to also take action (“resonate”). In this way, internal pressure can arise for those primarily responsible to leave the path of injustice and to participate in remedying the grievance. This becomes more likely if they are not attacked personally and do not feel threatened personally by the person concerned (non-violent approach). If the supporters of the grievance take countermeasures, the fifth level of difficulty is reached.

• Fifth level : (Escalation II)

Perseverance, preparation and increasing the effort. The active prepare in good time to deal with pain and damage in such a way that the active rejection of the injustice does not turn into hatred and willingness to fight against the perpetrators of the damage. Workshops or seminars on personal development help to find and practice ways of maintaining benevolence and a willingness to engage in dialogue even under difficult conditions. The preparation also includes the development of methodological skills up to concrete preparatory and preventive measures for kindness actions (conventionally called non-violent actions). Activities that remind your own side of the benevolent approach can also be important. For example, when the years of efforts for the rights of Mexican farm workers in California, which had led to global solidarity, came to a critical point in 1968 as a result of brutal countermeasures by employers and threatened to turn into violence, the union leader Cesar Chavez fasted 25 days. This led to a new departure in the movement and to growing support from ever wider circles from all parts of the USA. If those primarily responsible are ready to take extreme violent countermeasures, voluntary, benevolent, fair and controversial actions can show that those involved are also willing to commit themselves and not allow themselves to be intimidated. Through this commitment of the committed, their own urge for truth and humanity is intensely addressed by those primarily responsible. As a result, internal ambivalence and internal pressure can arise or grow in them, so that, for example, in the event of confrontations, individual or several people from their group express their solidarity with the committed ones and also contribute to reducing the grievances instead of supporting it. In this way, the grievance can finally be remedied, if necessary through further kindness actions. If this does not happen because the key persons responsible for the problem are still inaccessible, then the sixth level has been reached.

• Sixth level : (Escalation III)

Mass non-cooperation, civil disobedience and building alternatives. An (injustice) system and an injustice can only continue to exist if people support them. If they don't do that any more, the system will shake. More and more people who support the exercise of power by the key people are encouraged by the contagious power of goodness to give up their support of the injustice system. To this end, those involved organize non-cooperation and the establishment of alternatives. Possibilities are e.g. B. the return of offices, boycotts, strikes, general strikes, mass refusal to give orders, military service and taxes as well as the occupation of buildings and facilities. To build alternatives, z. B. the occupation and reallocation of buildings or the drafting of a new constitution. Without the establishment of better structures, the sustainable and permanent elimination of grievances is difficult. The benevolence actions described can be very powerful and provoke violent counter-reactions, which increase the risk that the confrontation drifts into violent confrontation. This makes the endangerment of human life and the oppression of those involved and their concerns more likely. That is why those involved keep the appeal character and the willingness to dialogue in the foreground, which at least the leading persons of the benevolent mission carefully pay attention to. The goal of “deprivation of power” as a motive for action does not outweigh the appeal and does not become independent. The non-cooperation progressively undermines the power of the key people. It can be increased to the point of their complete disempowerment, so that they either give in beforehand or give up their power - as a number of examples of the benevolent termination of dictatorships shows. [7]

Basic elements of the mode of operation: independent activity, resonance, non-cooperation

When acting benevolently, the committed address others out of their inclination to benevolence and justice in such a way that they are also guided in their actions by their own, perhaps hardly conscious, inclination to benevolence and justice. The following elements in particular play a role:

Independent activity : Those who act with kindness first concentrate on their own responsibility for a grievance: They look for ways in which they can reduce the grievance themselves or contribute to it, and implement them. If that is not enough, they look for ways to get the support of others to remedy the grievance. The committed role model and benevolent attitude infect others. Martin Arnold speaks of resonance.

Swinging along : Other people are encouraged to show solidarity and support through the help of committed people. This sets in motion a positive dynamic, an “angelic spiral of kindness” (as opposed to the “vicious circle of violence”).

Non-cooperation : If, after widespread and intensive effort and the resulting public pressure, key key people still refuse to help reduce the grievances, their power is undermined by organized non-cooperation. Success is made possible through the participation of more and more people, through mass participation.

Favorable personality traits

There are several qualities that are helpful for good practice. In addition to a basic attitude of benevolence, these are above all courage, perseverance and perseverance as well as openness and the willingness to engage in dialogue. Empathy and the ability to perceive the points of view, truths and positive qualities of others are also important. These skills may not all be there to begin with, but they can be developed through personality development. This task is part of benevolent empowerment.

Empowerment

The openness to new things, including the willingness to develop personality, is a prerequisite for good-natured, benevolent and fair arguments. In empowerment, those involved strengthen their strength and their willingness to work by developing the necessary skills to resist and to develop constructive alternatives. The necessary learning relates to both the basic attitudes and convictions as well as the competence to select and apply the methods that are appropriate to the respective situation.

For Hildegard Goss-Mayr , the first step in this empowerment is the need to discover the power of nonviolence in oneself. Goss-Mayr speaks of “giving more space to love”. To make oneself aware of the power in oneself can help individuals and groups to accept costs and risks for the reduction of the current grievances and to abandon any existing victim attitude. Those who are aware of their own power of benevolence also trust others more easily, develop empathy and trust their inclination towards benevolence and justice.

With the methods, the analysis of the situation is the starting point (see e.g. the analysis triangle in Hildegard Goss-Mayr, 2004). What exactly is the grievance? What are the factors and the groups of people that contribute to perpetuating the grievance? Which groups do you have in common? [8] This brings the starting points for activities and contacts into view. Depending on the situation, many other skills can be important, from public relations and fundraising to support those affected in solidarity through to project and campaign management.

literature

• Robert F. Antoch: Gutenkraft: Kraft der Liebe In: violent action, Vol. 31, H. 121 1999, pp. 58-64
• Robert F. Antoch: Love your comrade, equal to you. It's me . Lecture to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Dt. Annual meeting, Bad Pyrmont 2003.
• Martin Arnold: Kindness. An impact model of active nonviolence according to Hildegard Goss-Mayr, Mohandas K. Gandhi and Bart de Ligt. With a foreword by Johan Galtung. Baden-Baden: Nomos 2011. ISBN 978-3-8329-6975-2
• Martin Arnold: Gütekraft - Hildegard Goss-Mayr Christian nonviolence Overath: Bücken & Sulzer 2011. ISBN 978-3-936405-65-1
• Martin Arnold: Gütekraft - Gandhis Satyagraha Overath: Bücken & Sulzer 2011. ISBN 978-3-936405-66-8
• Martin Arnold: Gütekraft - Bart de Ligt's humanistic Geestelijke Weerbaarheid Overath: Bücken & Sulzer 2011. ISBN 978-3-936405-67-5
• Martin Arnold: Nine-eleven 1906 »The Beginning of Satjāgrah« - historically more important than 9/11 2001 Online: [1] (PDF; 62 kB)
• Martin Arnold: Basic text - What does quality research investigate? Sozio-Publishing, Belm-Vehre 2008, ISBN 978-3-935431-73-6 .
• Christian Bartolf (ed.): The breath of my life: the dialogue of Mahatma Gandhi and Bart de Ligt about war and peace . Gandhi Information Center, Berlin 2000. ISBN 3-930093-14-6
• Birgit Berg: From the cult of violence to the power of kindness. Examples and aspects of a renamed quality In: violent action, Vol. 31, H. 121 1999, pp. 17-30
• Birgit Berg: World map of nonviolence. 150 Nonviolent Events of the 20th Century . Word workshop poetry & politics, Freiburg o. J.
• Burkard Bläsi: Conflict Transformation through Kindness. Interpersonal change processes . Lit-Verlag Münster 2001, ISBN 3-8258-5731-X . (Studies on Nonviolence 4)
• Reinhard Egel-Völp: The term Gütekraft as a compass for a second voyage of discovery In: violent action, vol. 31, H. 121 1999, pp. 131-136
• Hildegard Goss-Mayr: Man from injustice. Spirituality and Practice of Nonviolent Liberation, Europaverlag Zurich etc. 2004; digital: 1st edition 1976 in: Thomas Nauerth (ed.): Reference library for Christian Peace Theology Berlin: Directmedia Publishing (digital library special volume), pp. 868–1132
• Wolfgang Sternstein: Satjagraha as a science In: violent action, vol. 31, no. 121 1999, pp. 107–115

Web links

• Guetekraft.net - Working group Gütekraft

Individual evidence

1. ^ A research project at the University of Siegen on the power of goodness by Martin Arnold
2. ^ Gandhi, Mahatma (1999): Electronic Book of The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. Publications Division (ed.). New Delhi: Icon Softec. Vol. 19, p. 206 and Vol. 34, p. 93.
3. ↑ Diwakar, Ranganath Ramachandra (1948): Satyagraha. The Power of Truth. Hinsdale Ill .: H. Regnery Co., p. XXI
4. ↑ Antoch: Gutenkraft: Kraft der Liebe, 1999.
5. ↑ Bläsi: Conflict transformation through the power of kindness. Interpersonal change processes, 2001.
6. ↑ Arnold: Kindness force. An impact model of active nonviolence according to Hildegard Goss-Mayr, Mohandas K. Gandhi and Bart de Ligt. 2011.
7. ↑ Hüther, Gerald / Christa Spannbauer (eds.) (2012): Connectedness - Why we need a new worldview. Huber publishing house.
8. ^ Tomasello, Michael / Henriette Zeidler (2010): Why we cooperate. Suhrkamp Verlag.
9. ↑ Bierhoff, Hans-Werner (2009): Psychology of prosocial behavior: Why we help others. Kohlhammer paperbacks.
10. ↑ Bauer, Joachim (2006): Why I feel what you feel: Intuitive communication and the secret of mirror neurons. Heyne publishing house.