Blog Archives

Commitment #8: Assumption of Innocence

May 6, 2013

A headnote from us: These days we are locating the people and projects we come across on our Roadmap. These contributions from Miki Kashtan are easily, and centrally located: she is speaking to point four, “Practice personhood” in the inner circle of the map — a ringside seat! ———– by Miki Kashtan New to this blog? Read Miki’s Introduction to this series ‘All -in: fully committing to a life of nonviolence’ before getting started. Check in every other week on Mondays for a new commitment and practice for daily living. If you feel called, please comment on posts and engage with one...

Combatting cyber-bullying with a higher image of people

August 20, 2012

By metta

A high school senior combats cyber-bullying through cyber-nonviolence and a higher image of his peers. *** Check out any Hollywood movie set in high school and you’ll see the football captain portrayed as a dumb, arrogant jock who’s either a bully or a bystander, someone who passively watches other students get verbal and physical smackdowns. But Kevin Curwick, a 17-year-old senior who’s the football captain at Osseo High School in Minnesota plays against all those stereotypes. Disgusted by the cyberbullying of other teens on Twitter, Curwick decided to start his own social media campaign, Osseo Nice Things, where he tweets positive things about...

Syria: Lamp in the Storm

August 2, 2012

By metta

How can we can create the right vision to support indigenous nonviolence and unarmed civilian peacekeeping? by Michael Nagler posted Jul 30, 2012 posted at Yes! Magazine Share During the climactic “Quit India” campaign launched by Gandhi in 1942, there were outbreaks of violence. Earlier, in 1922, similar outbreaks had led him to suspend the non-cooperation movement. This time, however, he said, “let our lamp stay lit in the midst of this hurricane.” This is very much the precarious situation of nonviolence in Syria today. A bit of background: In the Quranic version of Cain and Abel, Abel says to...

the Great Turning

August 1, 2012

By metta

You can find the text below on at this link at the Center for Ecoliteracy. The Great Turning is a name for the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the Industrial Growth Society to a life-sustaining civilization. The ecological and social crises we face are caused by an economic system dependent on accelerating growth. This self-destructing political economy sets its goals and measures its performance in terms of ever-increasing corporate profits—in other words by how fast materials can be extracted from Earth and turned into consumer products, weapons, and waste. A revolution is under way because...

Nipun Mehta on TedX Berkeley: Designing for Generosity

August 1, 2012

By metta

“What would the world look like if we designed for generosity? Instead of assuming that people want to simply maximize self-interest, what if our institutions and organizations catered to our deeper motivations? This compelling TEDx talk explores this question and introduces the concept of Giftivism: the practice of radically generous acts that change the world. The video is charged with stories of such acts, ranging from: the largest peaceful transfer of land in human history, to a pay-it-forward restaurant, to a 10-year-old’s unconventional birthday celebration, and the stunning interaction between a victim and his teenage mugger. With clarity and...