I read a story some years ago that supposed an alternate history, where Germany had taken control of India in the '30s. Gandhi tried the “nonviolent protest” method with the German powers. This resulted not in imprisonments, but in 10’s of thousands of executions. The end of the story showed Gandhi trying to reason with a German officer, and it finally dawning on him (Gandhi) that these were not the British he was dealing with, and there was no way this tactic would win against an enemy that had no moral qualms about killing thousands of non-violent people and had developed efficient ways of doing just that.
Most movements are launched from an inner core of a few hundred people. The Nazis were, for example. Martin Luther King’s movement had a few hundred people. These people were able to attract the attention of others from outside the movement and inspire their actions.
But it would be trivial to plot out the success of a movement on the premise that it’s starting with ten million members. That’s a movement that’s already succeeded.
You’ve got a few hundred followers. You’re back in that era (I’ll let you pick the exact time and place). What do you do? Do you feel that the best use of your organization is to recruit more people into the movement? And if so, how do you do that?
Another interesting story: Southern Strategy by Michael Flynn. It has a militant version of Martin Luther King as a character (although he’s named John Calvin King).
Germany at the time was in dire straits, as a result of reparations and world Depression. So some sort of work-based programme, providing for people’s needs in a communal fashion, but without the Communist ideology. Finance this with capitalist money - see below.
Make not repeating WWI a mantra - completely repudiate any attempts at rearming.
Snazzy uniforms and a culture of health would be a good idea, given the propaganda success it could be.
Also promote Pan-germanism and anti-socialism like the Nazis did, but swing it towards a healthy self-esteem rather than outward Teutonism.
Make a point of recruiting young women first. The young men will follow.
Also vocally, publicly battle the anti-Semitism that was then common. Work to remove it as a currency of popular culture, rather than remain silent.
Actively recruit Jews, particularly scientists and engineers, artists, other industry leaders.
Leverage German tech advances into making Germany a leader in peaceful applications of auto, air and sea transport, jets, helicopters and rockets.
Make full, aware use of the technologies of film, radio and television, both for propaganda attacks and recruitment. Oh, and also as moneymaking streams.
Actively target industrialists and their families. Offer them tech advantages. Or else, instigate a concerted program of propaganda, persuasion, or even honey-traps and the like, to get them into the organisation. Or at least, their money.
Ditto for anyone in the NDSAP or SA - threaten to out the gays and philanderers, entrap them sexually, financial entrapment, and a steady propaganda program (financed by those industrialists).
Basically, starting with a few hundred people (most of whom would be pretty girls and bois), target the wealthy first, then filter pacifism down to the masses via a scientific, industrial propaganda machine. At the same time, break the opposition using the same underhand methods.
Yeah, lots of violence can be stopped if you’re allowed to choose an arbitrary number of protesters with unspecified economic and persuasive power. That’s not a very good argument though.
At the risk of sounding pedantic I can’t help think of having someone else do the violence on your behalf (i.e. arresting someone) as being pacifistic in nature.
Heck, the people who weren’t so keen on non-violent resistance are often times ignored in the historiography of the Civil Rights movement. King (M.L.) certainly didn’t start out as a pacifist as he applied for a gun permit in Alabama and was not confident the police would protect him, though, of course, he did eventually go down the non-violent route. The SNCC certainly advocated the use of violence or non-violence depending on the situation. After all, pacifism might work when you have news cameras rolling but it doesn’t do much good when the men in white sheets are kicking down your front door in Mississippi.
I’d support that movement actually except I would insist on rearming but turn it anti-Communist and prepare for a massive war of liberation against the USSR utilizing the Eastern European states as allies. Have them support the anti-Soviets (they existed and almost a million Russians fought for the Nazis despite the latter’s incredible barbarity) within the USSR and restore German confidence and get rid of the Communists in one blow.
It needs to be repeated. ‘Technical pacifists’ are not, technically, pacifists, any more than someone who claims the bullet actually does all the killing.
Or how far can we take this? Can a pacifist who finds a way to sic the Hells Angels on someone do that and keep their pacifist halo untarnished? Bringing it back to the topic, what if the German Gandhi worked as an agent-in-place for the OSS and nonviolently relayed information about troop movements within German borders? He, as a pacifist, certainly didn’t bomb those trains or strafe those men.
So you’d try to outdo Hitler and get Germany involved into a different horrifyingly bloody war of conquest? This is why you shouldn’t ever be in charge of a country.
Motives matter. Mine would be a rational conflict to liberate the Soviet people and destroy Communism while its virus has yet to spread all over the world. I wouldn’t massacre anyone rather I will support the anti-Communist Russians in the liberation of their nation.
How very decent of you. And when you poke the bear and Stalin marches his armies into Berlin, will it be you who quaffs poison and gets a bullet in your underground bunker, or will you leave that to someone more ordinary?
Look, for all of Castro’s faults he had the genuine support of the majority of the Cuban population at least in the early years and did not resort to mass murder or famine to keep order. Bay of Pigs consisted of just a 1,000 exiles while the anti-Soviet armies in Russia numbered over a million men including crack Cossacks and several generals from White armies or even those who defected from the Soviet army.