Mass nonviolent protest outperforms indiscriminate killing

Evidence

The claim that terrorism works is also disputed. Mass nonviolent protest is a morally grounded strategy that is more likely to achieve sociopolitical change than the indiscriminate killing of innocent people. The power of mass nonviolent resistance that is aided by social modeling of strategies is graphically illustrated in the rapid toppling of oppressive regimes. For the first time in history, people worldwide watched on television as mass civil resistance brought the ouster of the repressive regime in East Germany. The power of overwhelming numbers could not be suppressed. People from East and West Berlin joined in demolishing the Berlin Wall. This dramatic success became a model of political change. Mass nonviolence resistance was quickly adopted by people in other Eastern European countries. They dislodged Soviet-backed rulers in Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, and other nations (Braithwaite, 1994). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2142 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In Kosovo, where seeds of the Bosnian genocide were planted, the Albanian-Serb conflict is on the verge of mass violence. After ten years of repression, some Albanians have abandoned the nonviolent resistance and joined an armed rebellion. Special Serbian police have carried out retaliatory atrocities, which have increased support by Albanians for armed resistance. … Father Sava offers a lonely and profound contrast to the Serbian Orthodox hierarchy and to Serbian police who praise Serbia’s crusade to protect Europe from Islam. The international community seems as indecisive over Kosovo in 1998 as it was over Bosnia in 1992? — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 32 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Nonviolent civil disobedience tactics won concessions from a resistant federal government — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 281; Repression drives nonviolent movements to armed rebellion — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and…, 32; Mass nonviolent protest achieves change that terrorism cannot. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2142 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Mass nonviolent protest achieves change that terrorism cannot. #corroborates (0.97) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2142
• Repression drives nonviolent movements to armed rebellion #complicates (0.85) — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 32