How to Lawfully Rebel

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Just like Ghandi who stood alone in defiance of the might of the British Raj, we advocate peaceful, lawful rebellion.

We provide below the full text of the excellent book written by Gene Sharp, the revolutionary who wrote the playbook for non-violent revolution.

The following is excerpted from Gene’s book, to give you and idea of the contents. We hope that this will encourage you to download and read the whole book and then use it as a guide to creating a better future for all.

Who was Gene Sharp?

Gene wasn’t a born rebel, but he set out to do something that would leave the world a better place and never wavered. He was too young to fight in World War II, yet after observing the war’s horrors, he found hope in Mohandas Gandhi’s use of nonviolent action in India against the British, and completed his first book about Gandhi when he was just 23.

When the draft card arrived for the Korean War, Gene knew he could never consent to killing another human and refused to fight. Just before he was sent to prison for two years, he wrote to Albert Einstein to tell him of his predicament and ask for help in getting his Gandhi book published. The unexpected correspondence that followed gives a fascinating insight into Einstein’s thoughts on civil disobedience. “I hope, though I cannot know that I would do what you have done,” he wrote to Gene.

Upon his release, Gene worked for A.J. Muste, a leading pacifist, before leaving for London to become assistant editor at Peace News, where in 1958 he organized the first anti-nuclear march to the Aldermaston atomic weapons plant.

The now iconic peace sign made its debut as part of that movement, and was printed on Gene’s first guide for maintaining nonviolent discipline during the march.

After he completed his advanced studies at Oxford, Gene’s writings began to spread and attract attention from people living under oppression in many corners of the world.

An understanding of the nature of political power will help us to understand how to conduct our peaceful struggle effectively.

The central importance of power

Before we can confront the power structure that has enslaved us through stealth and many crimes, we need to understand how power works.

  • Power is inherent in practically all social and political relationships
  • Its control is the basic problem in political theory and in political reality
  • It is necessary to wield power in order to control the power of threatening adversaries
  • Social power is the totality of all influences and pressures which can be used by and applied to groups of people, either to attempt to control the behaviour of others directly or indirectly, or to accomplish a group objective by group action.
  • Political power is that kind of social power which is wielded for political objectives, especially by governmental institutions or by people in opposition to or in support of such institutions. Political power thus refers to the total authority, influence, pressure, and coercion which may be applied to achieve or prevent the implementation of the wishes of the power-holder

Obedience is the heart of political power

The relationship between command and obedience is always one of mutual influence and some degree of interaction. That is, each influences the other. Without the expected conformity by the subordinates (whether in the form of passive acquiescence or active consent) the power relationship is not complete, despite the threat or infliction of sanctions.

Q. Why do people obey?

From a psychological point of view the crux of the problem of determining the rulers’ power rests in understanding the origin, constitution, and maintenance of obedience.

A. There are multiple reasons to obey Actually there is no single self-sufficient explanation for why people obey rulers. The reasons are multiple, complex, and interrelated.

These reasons include:

  • Habit
  • Fear of sanctions
  • Moral obligation
  • Self-interest
  • Psychological identification with the rulers
  • Indifference
  • Absence of self-confidence among subjects

These are just some great insights from Gene’s book. There is much more packed into the 130-page book that we hope will inspire you to do your bit to bring about a better future. If we all take just one step a day, we can make a tremendour impact. This book will give you an insight into the many valuable ideas Gene has codified into a guide for everyone to free themselves from the yoke of tyranny.

If you have had enough of the political party corporate government telling you how you can live and you would like to get involved in changing the system to one where We the People decide our future, this is the book you need to read.

Download this free book here:

How Non-Violent Struggle Works – By Gene Sharp
How Non-Violent Struggle Works – By Gene Sharp

Download this valuable guide by clicking on the green Download button below.

This small book offers the principal contents of the 902 pages of the original 1973 The Politics of Nonviolent Action to anyone who wants to learn the substance of how nonviolent struggle works.

That is, how the nonviolent technique can operate in conflicts, even when strong opponents are willing and able to impose harsh repression.

There are almost no historical examples presented in this abridged text. They can easily be found elsewhere.

This distilled text is amazingly faithful to the original lengthy complex analysis published in 1973. The full The Politics of Nonviolent Action did not appear ready-made that year. That book was the result of years of efforts to understand, describe, and present the technique of
nonviolent action.

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