Why this book matters...

Social justice and Resistance groups like Code Pink, Black Lives Matter, our local Manhattan Alliance for Peace & Justice - all of the traditional nonviolence groups - had no choice but to React to events and work to end violence along the continuum of violence, including systemic, institutional violence. These groups and methods are still much needed. There are so many 'wrongs' to 'right.'
But, today,  we have the capacity to Reframe rather than (only) react.  Today we know enough about interconnected relationship systems to get ahead of the violence by changing circumstances that lead to imbalance and system failure in the first place.

Here is a passage that explains why "every day nonviolence," as suggested in The Tao of Nonviolence,  matters:

All of us are horrified by the failures of traditional problemsolving. We see fall-out from dualistic, either-or thinking every day. Many of us eagerly embrace “changing the system.” What concerns me is that by continuing to “set up” problems-to-be-solved within the old,polarized framework, even this younger generation risks unwittingly perpetuating the status quo.

The good news is that a holistic worldview is an insight all of us can now achieve.

The Tao of Nonviolence introduces this process-based, participatory problem-solving model. It will help us perceive of human relations and interactions as living systems; practice the skills of logical, demystified, non-moralistic nonviolence; and, thereby, become the“change we wish to see in the world,” as MahatmaGandhi urged.

(From the Preface)