Peace, Power and Nonviolence (Washington Center Syllabus, 2007)
Peace Studies
The Washington Center
Spring Semester ‘07
Prof. Colman McCarthy
If every government claims it wants peace, and if every human heart yearns for peace, why is there so little of it? Why are fists, guns, armies and bombs routinely relied on as the ways to settle conflicts, whether across a living room or across an ocean? And one more question: why are so few of the nation’s 78,000 elementary schools, 31,000 high schools and 3,100 colleges and universities offering courses on the study of peace and the practice of nonviolent?
This course is a modest solution. It offers a chance for students to break away from conventional thinking, worn-out politics, quick-fixes and slow progress. Studying nonviolence is not for the faint or weak of heart, nor conformists, nor the close-minded. Instead, it is for those who are intellectually brave, spiritually alive, socially engaged and lovers of long-shots.
The course is discussion-based. Dissent and debate is welcomed. One skeptic enlivens the class more than a dozen passive agreers. Readings will be assigned at the end of class for the next week’s class.
COURSE TEXTS
Strength Through Peace: the Ideas and People of Nonviolence
Solutions to Violence
I’d Rather Teach Peace.
All of One Peace
A choice: (a) Two papers between 1,000 and 1,200 words each. The first is due March 27. The second May 8, the final class. Or (b): a paper between 1,000 and 1,200 words due March 27 and a journal with weekly entries, due May 8, the final class. In either a or b, the writing should be reflective, imaginative, cliché-free and linked to the essays in the course texts and/or the discussions in class. The paper should not be a research paper. Make the papers or journal reflective, ones that can include your own experiences involving either violence or nonviolence. It’s fine to use the first person pronoun. In fact, it’s often better that way: to write the kind of paper that only you could write because it includes only experiences and ideas you have had.
EXPECTATIONS
The papers or journals that are superior, and get the professor thinking that this is one of the best he has ever seen, earn a superior grade: A. Papers or journals that are above average, but don’t have that little extra sparkle, get an above average grade: B Papers or journals that are average, get an average grade: C. Below average, and let’s hope this doesn’t happen, a D. For a trashy paper or journal, a trashy F. Grade deduction for a late paper.
Date: May 8. The exam will not involve essay answers. It will involve either right or wrong answers to questions based only on readings or excerpts of readings done in class. Sample question: identify the author of this statement—“An eye for an eye and we all go blind.”
If you are doing two papers, each counts for a third of the grade. If you are doing a paper and a journal, each counts for a third of the grade. The exam is the final third.
The best reason for missing class is a death: yours or mine. The best reason for lateness to class: a near-death experience.
If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me soon as possible.
AVAILABILITY
I’m reachable at the Center for Teaching Peace, 450l Van Ness St., NW, Washington DC 20016 or 202 537-1372 or cmccarthy@starpower.net.