Let’s protest

Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts.

If we want to change society, we don’t need to change everyone all at once. We don’t need a cataclysmic revolution. We don’t need to burn it all down the ground. All we need to achieve the change we seek is the active engagement of just 3.5% of the general population. Not 35%. Just 3.5% guarantees success.

Unlike violent protests that require brute force, technological advantage and necessary carnage, nonviolent protests maintain the moral high ground. They provide better role models, better mediators.

René Girard knows we seek to imitate those we aspire to be. Most of us abhor and fear bloodshed. Most of us seek peace.

With fewer physical barriers to participation, nonviolent campaigns can maintain engagement over time. We don’t need weapons. We don’t need to be trained in combat.

By becoming the peaceful role models and mediators, nonviolent protestors become the peer group that more and more people want to be like.

The peer group that more and more people want to join.