World History Final Portfolio 2014

Nonviolence has been said to be the better option. It is also said to be the harder and longer option. Throughout history people try to say that with the power of nonviolence you can and will get more respect, power over others, and people will not go against you. All year I have made it easy see that I’ am without a doubt all for violence when it comes to needing or wanting something. I personally feel that one; it is a faster method than nonviolence, two; people will give you more power, three; people know that the died for immediate change and not  just so the next step of the plan can be put in action.

Within the debate between violence and nonviolence a lot of people side with nonviolence because of the well known nonviolent protest leaders. People like Martin Luther King and Gandhi always are brought up into conversation based on their horrendous and outstanding nonviolent revolutions. When I join into these type of debate and I ‘am asked about my opinion I always side for violence when something needs to be done. One thing I always throw into the conversation is the fact that those two men were the  leaders of some of the greatest revolutions ever but not only our most known but are most important revolutions were fought with the help of violence. Before nonviolent revolutions the only type of revolutions were revolutionary wars. Revolutionary wars not only freed the blacks but it also freed our country so we could be our own nation.

Most people argue that nonviolence is more powerful because they think it can get your point across better. Well there is an old saying that “if you aren’t willing to die for it than there is no point in fighting for it. Now there are quotes to go against violence one of which is “nonviolence is a weapon of the strong.” -Gandhi. In one of my journals I talked about my stance on violence vs nonviolence. I also talk about how much faith I have in nonviolence. When completing that journal I was reading a piece from Gandhi and that is also where I got the famous quote. I feel like Gandhi thinks that only those who can wield the power to use nonviolence as an answer has a powerful mind. I believe that it also takes a lot of strength to decide that you actually want to use violence.

Another thing people like to argue is that the process of nonviolent revolution is easier than the process of a violent revolution. In another one of my journals I talk about how process does not matter. In the journal I go on to make the argument that if someone has a 100 man army and they succeed while I have a 10 man army and I also succeed what makes us different. Well one thing is that I will get more respect because I made a bigger impact since I did exactly what they did with less people. It is also the same thing as 100 being nonviolence while 10 is like violence.

This is just a small example of the type of work I was able to complete throughout the year. Because of my work and some time I was able to give my classmates another view on violent protest and revolutions. I believe that my work has deeply impacted the minds of my peers.