Nonviolence

We propose as a first step that you think about non-violence. What is the meaning of non-violence for you? This might depend on your age, the environment in which you are growing up, your personal experience of violence and of non-violence. The founders of many religions have discussed the importance of non-violence, and we know how people like Tolstoj, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, not only spoke and wrote about this subject, but showed by their lives and actions how the idea of non-violence affected their daily lives and their work for other people.

Our Foundation for Violence-Free Living uses the symbol of the Blue Rose as the symbol for non-violence. We describe non-violence as follows:

The BLUE ROSE

... is a symbol for nonviolence

The STIFTUNG GEWALTFREIES LEBEN (FOUNDATION FOR VIOLENCE-FREE LIVING), located in Koenigsfeld in the Black Forest of Germany, was founded in 1989.The FOUNDATION is an independent, non-partisan, private, charitable organization doing its part in helping maintain an earth which remains inhabitable for humans. The impetus for starting the FOUNDATION was based on a deep foreboding concerning the future of humanity. For thousands of years humans lived harmoniously with nature without altering it to a degree which might endanger survival. In recent years this has changed drastically. Today the survival of human beings and of many life forms is threatened: short-term through the explosion of atomic weapons leading to an atomic holocaust; long-term through the destruction of our natural environment through pollution, through radioactive contamination of the earth, the water and the air, through destruction of the protective ozone layer, through the warming effect of exhaust gases and emissions, and through the destruction of our forests.

How can we solve these problems? Could the answer be the willingness, a commitment of the individual to live free of violence, more consciously than before?

What does nonviolence mean? There are no absolute answers. The FOUNDATION does not create norms like states, religions, or philosophies do. The FOUNDATION only wants to encourage people to examine their own conscience, find their own standards and live accordingly.

The symbol and the idea of the BLUE ROSE could simply mean that we try to consciously live free of violence in accordance with our own standards and at the same time, to respect the standards of the other person.

The BLUE ROSE understands nonviolence in a very broad sense which includes:

Non-violence

• towards oneself, within marriage, within the family;
• within the school, towards neighbors, in one’s professional life,
• within religion, in legislative procedures, in the judiciary, in international conflicts;
• in our consumptive behavior; between rich and poor, interculturally;
• towards nature.

The Foundation believes that individuals must decide for themselves what violence-free living means, but feels that a wearer of a BLUE ROSE should at least make a minimum commitment to refrain from physically harming another person.

The Foundation tries to formulate the meaning of the BLUE ROSE as follows:

The BLUE ROSE

... is a symbol for non-violence. Those who wear a BLUE ROSE demonstrate their ever-present intent to live and act non-violently. Non-violence means refraining from harming another person's life or human dignity. This includes the refusal to carry or use any type of weapon. Non-violence, however, implies much more. I must decide for myself what wearing the BLUE ROSE means for me regarding my relationships towards the environment, towards plants and animals, and towards the results of structural violence like poverty, oppression, exploitation and injustice. In the spirit of the BLUE ROSE my own thoughts and feelings in how I define non-violence are vitally important. Of equal importance, however, is the degree to which each person I encounter perceives my attitude and my actions to be peaceful and free of violence.

The Foundation for Violence-Free Living offers the BLUE ROSE symbol printed on buttons, bumper stickers, and T-shirts. Wearing such a button or T-shirt means one is personally committed to nonviolence. By wearing a BLUE ROSE button you declare to the people you encounter: "I try to live nonviolently; please treat me nonviolently, too." The BLUE ROSE can be especially effective with group actions like peaceful, nonviolent demonstrations. When all participants wear a BLUE ROSE button, they have accepted a commitment to demonstrate nonviolently and to clearly show that to the outside. Thereby the BLUE ROSE can contribute to keeping such demonstations free of violence. In this way the BLUE ROSE was used in September 1996 when students from Biel, Switzerland organized a school strike for the abolishment of all armies within three years.