Nonviolent civil disobedience has repeatedly defeated major oppressive regimes.

Evidence

But perhaps a better, more pragmatic question is whether social change and political transformation can ever be accomplished without the loss of life. The 20th century, despite its bloody legacy, gave us several examples of revolutionaries whose committed pacifism and methods of civil disobedience ultimately proved successful. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Vaclav Havel, and Nelson Mandela defeated, respectively, the British Empire in India, racial hegemony in the United States, Communist rule in the Czech Republic, and Apartheid in South Africa. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 153

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in sacrifice and ritual violence — these are counterexamples where transformation came without mass death. — connects to: Nonviolent civil disobedience tactics won concessions from a resistant federal government — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 281
• SEED: Naomi Klein’s ‘shock doctrine’ style piece: comparing the actual success conditions of nonviolent vs. armed liberation movements.