Violence and nonviolence can be understood as choices humans make when confronted with conflict. That understanding usually includes assumptions regarding the use of direct physical harm. More nuanced views hold that they have other forms. Indeed, they are value spectrums of human action and social order: how citizens act, interact amongst themselves and with the state, and how states interact with other states, from state building to empire making to peacekeeping. Thus, they are both means (values-in-action) and ends (values-of-order) of social change and human development. As spectrums, they each have several forms. Most people recognize violence as direct physical hurt or harm. They may be less aware of its structural systems and institutions or its cultural mores and norms. This essay argues that these three forms of violence (direct, structural, and cultural) have nonviolent counterparts. Combined, they represent a metalogic of (non)violence and a heuristic framework for rearticulating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s nonviolence logic for this century. This requires that we first discuss King’s logic in the context of history and social organization. We will then explicate the metalogic framework.
The published and unpublished articles of Dr. Johnny J. Mack.