very unstable foundation. Revolutionaries have
attempted in such circumstances to "liquidate" all the opposition, but
it is doubtful that they have ever been completely successful in doing
so. The ruthless use of violence in the process of liquidation has
usually alienated third parties against the regime that uses it, and
thus augmented the group that might support the counter-revolution.

Advocates of non-violence must start in the same way as the violent
revolutionaries to build their forces through persuasion and education.
They must assess properly the attitude of the third party and carry on
educational work with this group until it is certain that it will not go
over to the other side at the moment of action.

By the time a revolutionary or reforming group was large enough to use
violence successfully, and to weather the storm of the
counter-revolution or reaction, it would already have won to its side so
large a portion of the community that it could probably succeed without
the use of violence. This would certainly be true in a country like the
United States. We must ask the question as to whether the energy
consumed in the use of violence might not bring better results if it
were expended upon additional education and persuasion, without
involving the destruction of human life, human values, and property
which violence inevitably entails.

Even most of the ardent advocates of war and violent revolution admit
that violence is only an undesirable necessity for the achievement of
desirable ends. Non-violent methods pursued with the same commitment and
vigor would be just as likely to succeed in the immediate situation as
violence, without bringing in their train the tremendous human suffering
attendant upon violence. More important is the fact that a social order
based upon consent is more stable than one based upon coercion. If we
are interested in the long range results of action, non-violence is much
more likely to bring about the new society than is violence, because it
fosters rather than destroys the sense of community upon which any new
social order must be founded.

* * * * *

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INTRODUCTION TO
NON-VIOLENCE

PUBLICATIONS OF THE
PACIFIST RESEARCH BUREAU

1. Five Foot Shelf of Pacifist Li