Close-up p 10. Scilla Elworthy: Fighting with Non-violence. Extra Listening

Watch the video on the TED website
After 50 years of trying to prevent wars, I still have a question: How do we deal with extreme violence without using force in return? When faced with brutality, a child facing a bully, domestic violence or facing tanks and 1___________, what should we do? Fight back? 2________/ ________? Use more force?
I have had this question: "How do I deal with a bully without becoming a 3________ in return?" since I was a child. When I was about 13 I remember being 4___________ to a 5_________ black and white television as Soviet tanks 6________ into Budapest, and kids not much older than me were throwing themselves at the tanks and getting 7__________ down. And I 8__________ upstairs and started packing my suitcase.
In my 20s I got some training and went and worked in Africa. Training courses were not enough. I wanted to understand how violence, how oppression, works. Bullies use violence in three ways. They use political violence to intimidate, physical violence to terrorize and mental or emotional violence to 9_________. It seldom pays to use more violence.
When Nelson Mandela went to jail he believed in violence; however, 27 years later he and his colleagues had slowly and carefully 10_____________ the skills that they needed to turn one of the most 11_________ governments the world has known into a democracy. And they did it in a total 12_________ to non-violence. 
Some methods have worked for me. First of all, the change has to take place inside me. It's my response, my attitude that I've got control over, and that I can do something about. Therefore, I need self-knowledge. That is to say, I need to know how I 13__________, when I collapse, where my 14___________ points are, where my weaker points are.
My heroine here is Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma.While she was leading a group of students on a protest march, they came around a corner and were faced with a 15________/ _____/ ________/ _______. She noticed that the soldiers with their fingers shaking on the 16___________  were more frightened than the students. Nevertheless, she asked the students to sit down. And she walked right up to the first gun and lowered it. As a result no one was killed.
So that's what the 17_____________ of fear can do  But we need to practise. I believe that my fear grows fat on the energy I 18___________ it. And if it grows very big it will probably happen.
So we have all experienced the three o'clock in the morning 19____________, when something you've been worrying about wakes you up and for an hour you 20________/ _______/ _________, it gets worse and worse, and by four o'clock you're 21_________ to the pillow by a big monster. What you should do is get up, sit down with the fear like a child beside you and talk to it.
So that's fear. What about anger? Wherever there is injustice there's anger. But anger is like 22________, and if you spray it around and somebody lights a match, you've got an 23__________. But anger as an engine -- in an engine -- is powerful. If we can put our anger inside an engine, it can drive us forward, it can get us through the 24___________ moments and it can give us real inner power.
I learned working with nuclear weapon policy-makers. Because at the beginning I was so 25___________ at the dangers they were 26_____________ us to that I just wanted to argue and 27___________ and make them wrong. This was totally ineffective. If you want to develop a dialogue for change, you have to deal with your anger. It's okay to be angry with the thing but it is 28______________ to be angry with the people.
So that's the third one, anger. And it brings me to the 29___________ of what's happening in the world today, which is that last century was top-down power. This century there's a shift. It's bottom-up or 30____________ power. It's like mushrooms coming through 31___________. It's people joining up with people to 32__________/ ___________change.
Peace Direct spotted quite early on that local people in areas of very hot conflict know what to do. So Peace Direct gets behind them to do that. They're 33____________ militias, rebuilding economies, 34__________ refugees, even liberating child soldiers. They have learnt that using violence in the situations they operate in is not only less 35_____________, but it's less effective than using methods that connect people with people, that rebuild.
The U.S. military is beginning to understand this. Up to now their counter-terrorism policy has been to kill 36__________ at almost any cost, and if civilians get in the way, that's written as "37________ damage." And this is so 38____________ and humiliating for the population of Afghanistan, that it makes the recruitment for al-Qaeda very easy, when people are so 39__________ by, for example, the burning of the Koran.
There are signs that the training of the troops is beginning to change. There is a magnificent example for the British troops to take their 40___________ from. A U.S. lieutenant colonel called Chris Hughes was leading his men down the streets of Najaf -- in Iraq actually -- and suddenly people were 41_________ out of the houses on either side of the road, screaming, yelling, 42__________ angry, and surrounded these very young troops. And Chris Hughes 43.___________ into the middle of the 44________ with his weapon above his head, pointing at the ground, and he said, "Kneel." And these huge soldiers with their backpacks and their 45_________/ _________, 46____________ to the ground. And complete silence fell. And after about two minutes, everybody moved aside and went home.
 KEY
1. shrapnel / ˈʃræpnəl/ small pieces of metal that are thrown up and away from an exploding bomb. Sp. metralla. E.g. Two people were hit by shrapnel. A piece of shrapnel. A shrapnel wound.




2. Give in (to somebody/something) to admit that you have been defeated by somebody/something. Sp. darse por vencido, ceder, sucumbir. E.g. The rebels were forced to give in.




3. thug /θʌɡ/ a violent person, especially a criminal. Sp. matón, bruto, gamberro. E.g. a gang of thugs.




4. glued (be glued to something to give all your attention to something; to stay very close to something. E.g. He spends every evening glued to the TV. Her eyes were glued to the screen (= she did not stop watching it).




5.  grainy /ˈɡreɪni/ (especially of photographs) not having completely clear images because they look as if they are made of a lot of small dots and marks. E.g. The film is shot in grainy black and white.




6. rolled (roll to move smoothly (on wheels or as if on wheels). E.g. The car began to roll back down the hill. The traffic rolled slowly forwards. Mist was rolling in from the sea. Roll something (+ adverb/ preposition) He rolled the trolley across the room. 




7. mown (mow /məʊ/,past mowed, pp mown /məʊn/ or mowed somebody down to kill somebody using a vehicle or a gun, especially when several people are all killed at the same time. Sp. masacrar, arrasar. E.g. The gunmen opened fire, mowing down at least seven people.




8. rushed 




9. undermine /ˌʌndəˈmaɪn/ to make something, especially somebody's confidence or authority, gradually weaker or less effective. Sp. debilitar. E.g. Our confidence in the team has been seriously undermined by their recent defeats. This crisis has undermined his position. Recent changes have undermined teachers' morale.




10. honed (hone /həʊn/ to develop and improve something, especially a skill, over a period of time. Sp. perfeccionar. E.g. hone something She honed her debating skills at college. It was a finely honed piece of writing. His body was honed to perfection. 




11. vicious (/ˈvɪʃəs/ violent and cruel. Brutal. E.g. a vicious attack. A vicious criminal. She has a vicious temper.) 




12. devotion (/dɪˈvəʊʃn/ (to somebody/something) the action of spending a lot of time or energy on something. Dedication. E.g. her devotion to duty. Her devotion to the job left her with very little free time.




13. tick (behave) 




14. formidable (/ˈfɔːmɪdəbl/ /fəˈmɪdəbl/ if people, things or situations are formidable, you feel fear and/or respect for them, because they are impressive or powerful, or because they seem very difficult. Sp. Extraordinario, imponente, tremendo. E.g. In debate he was a formidable opponent. Somehow the small but formidable woman fought her way through the crowd to reach her son. She has a formidable list of qualifications. The two players together make a formidable combination. The task was a formidable one. They had to overcome formidable obstacles.




15. row of machine guns (a gun that automatically fires many bullets one after the other very quickly. Sp. Ametralladora.)




16. triggers




17. mastery




18. feed 




19. syndrome 




20. toss and turn (toss: to move or make somebody/something move from side to side or up and down. E.g. Branches were tossing in the wind. I couldn't sleep but kept tossing and turning in bed all night. Toss somebody/something Our boat was being tossed by the huge waves.)




21. pinned (pin somebody/something + adverb/preposition to make somebody unable to move by holding them or pressing them against something. Sp inmovilizar. E.g. They pinned him against a wall and stole his wallet. He grabbed her arms and pinned them to her sides.)




22. gasoline




23.  inferno /ɪnˈfɜːnəʊ/ a very large dangerous fire that is out of control. E.g. a blazing/raging inferno.




24. dreadful




25. outraged




26. exposing




27. blame




28. hopeless




29. crux (/krʌks/ the crux (of something) the most important or difficult part of a problem or an issue. Nub. Sp. quid. E.g. Now we come to the crux of the matter (Sp. el quid de la cuestión)




30. grassroots (of or involving the common people as constituting a fundamental political and economic group. Sp de la base. E.g. a grassroots movement for nuclear disarmament)




31. concrete




32. bring about (bring something about to make something happen. Cause. E.g. What brought about the change in his attitude?)




33. demobilising (demobilise /dɪˈməʊbəlaɪz/ to release somebody from military service, especially at the end of a war. E.g. We were waiting to be demobilized. The army has demobilized 200000 soldiers in the last two years.) 




34. resettling (resettle (somebody) to help people go and live in a new country or area; to go and live in a new country or area. Sp. reasentar. E.g. Many of the refugees were resettled in Britain and Canada. 




35. humane 




36. insurgents 




37. collateral 




38. infuriating 




39. disgusted (showing a strong feeling of dislike or disapproval for somebody/something that you feel is unacceptable, or for something that looks, smells, etc. unpleasant. Sp. indignado, asqueado)




40. cue (/kjuː/ take your cue from somebody/something to copy what somebody else does as an example of how to behave or what to do. Sp. seguir el ejemplo de. E.g. Investors are taking their cue from the big banks and selling dollars. 




41. pouring (pour /pɔː(r)/ + adverb/preposition to come or go somewhere continuously in large numbers. Flood. E.g. Letters of complaint continue to pour in. Commuters came pouring out of the station.) 




42. furiously 




43. strode (stride, strode stridden to walk with long steps in a particular direction. E.g. We strode across the snowy fields. She came striding along to meet me.) 




44. throng (/θrɒŋ/ a crowd of people. E.g. We pushed our way through the throng. He was met by a throng of journalists and photographers.) 




45. body armour (/ˈɑːmə(r)/ clothing worn by the police, etc. to protect themselves) 




46. wobbled ( wobble /ˈwɒbl/ to move from side to side in an unsteady way. Sp. temblar, tambalearse. E.g. This chair wobbles. (figurative) Her voice wobbled with emotion. Don't wobble the table—I'm trying to write.)




 




Transcript
In half a century of trying to help prevent wars, there's one question that never leaves me: How do we deal with extreme violence without using force in return? When you're faced with brutality, whether it's a child facing a bully on a playground or domestic violence -- or, on the streets of Syria today, facing tanks and shrapnel, what's the most effective thing to do? Fight back? Give in? Use more force?
This question: "How do I deal with a bully without becoming a thug in return?" has been with me ever since I was a child. I remember I was about 13, glued to a grainy black and white television in my parents' living room as Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest, and kids not much older than me were throwing themselves at the tanks and getting mown down. And I rushed upstairs and started packing my suitcase.
And my mother came up and said, "What on Earth are you doing?"
And I said, "I'm going to Budapest."
And she said, "What on Earth for?"
And I said, "Kids are getting killed there. There's something terrible happening."
And she said, "Don't be so silly." And I started to cry. And she got it, she said, "Okay, I see it's serious. You're much too young to help. You need training. I'll help you. But just unpack your suitcase."
And so I got some training and went and worked in Africa during most of my 20s. But I realized that what I really needed to know I couldn't get from training courses. I wanted to understand how violence, how oppression, works. And what I've discovered since is this: Bullies use violence in three ways. They use political violence to intimidate, physical violence to terrorize and mental or emotional violence to undermine. And only very rarely in very few cases does it work to use more violence.
Nelson Mandela went to jail believing in violence, and 27 years later he and his colleagues had slowly and carefully honed the skills, the incredible skills, that they needed to turn one of the most vicious governments the world has known into a democracy. And they did it in a total devotion to non-violence. They realized that using force against force doesn't work.
So what does work? Over time I've collected about a half-dozen methods that do work -- of course there are many more -- that do work and that are effective. And the first is that the change that has to take place has to take place here, inside me. It's my response, my attitude, to oppression that I've got control over, and that I can do something about.
And what I need to develop is self-knowledge to do that. That means I need to know how I tick, when I collapse, where my formidable points are, where my weaker points are. When do I give in? What will I stand up for? And meditation or self-inspection is one of the ways -- again it's not the only one -- it's one of the ways of gaining this kind of inner power.
And my heroine here -- like Satish's -- is Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma. She was leading a group of students on a protest in the streets of Rangoon. They came around a corner faced with a row of machine guns. And she realized straight away that the soldiers with their fingers shaking on the triggers were more scared than the student protesters behind her. But she told the students to sit down. And she walked forward with such calm and such clarity and such total lack of fear that she could walk right up to the first gun, put her hand on it and lower it. And no one got killed.
So that's what the mastery of fear can do -- not only faced with machine guns, but if you meet a knife fight in the street. But we have to practice. So what about our fear? I have a little mantra. My fear grows fat on the energy I feed it. And if it grows very big it probably happens.
So we all know the three o'clock in the morning syndrome, when something you've been worrying about wakes you up -- I see a lot of people -- and for an hour you toss and turn, it gets worse and worse, and by four o'clock you're pinned to the pillow by a monster this big. The only thing to do is to get up, make a cup of tea and sit down with the fear like a child beside you. You're the adult. The fear is the child. And you talk to the fear and you ask it what it wants, what it needs. How can this be made better? How can the child feel stronger? And you make a plan. And you say, "Okay, now we're going back to sleep. Half-past seven, we're getting up and that's what we're going to do."
I had one of these 3 a.m. episodes on Sunday -- paralyzed with fear at coming to talk to you. (Laughter) So I did the thing. I got up, made the cup of tea, sat down with it, did it all and I'm here -- still partly paralyzed, but I'm here.
(Applause)
So that's fear. What about anger? Wherever there is injustice there's anger. But anger is like gasoline, and if you spray it around and somebody lights a match, you've got an inferno. But anger as an engine -- in an engine -- is powerful. If we can put our anger inside an engine, it can drive us forward, it can get us through the dreadful moments and it can give us real inner power.
And I learned this in my work with nuclear weapon policy-makers. Because at the beginning I was so outraged at the dangers they were exposing us to that I just wanted to argue and blame and make them wrong. Totally ineffective. In order to develop a dialogue for change we have to deal with our anger. It's okay to be angry with the thing -- the nuclear weapons in this case -- but it is hopeless to be angry with the people. They are human beings just like us. And they're doing what they think is best. And that's the basis on which we have to talk with them.
So that's the third one, anger. And it brings me to the crux of what's going on, or what I perceive as going on, in the world today, which is that last century was top-down power. It was still governments telling people what to do. This century there's a shift. It's bottom-up or grassroots power. It's like mushrooms coming through concrete. It's people joining up with people, as Bundy just said, miles away to bring about change.
And Peace Direct spotted quite early on that local people in areas of very hot conflict know what to do. They know best what to do. So Peace Direct gets behind them to do that. And the kind of thing they're doing is demobilizing militias, rebuilding economies, resettling refugees, even liberating child soldiers. And they have to risk their lives almost every day to do this. And what they've realized is that using violence in the situations they operate in is not only less humane, but it's less effective than using methods that connect people with people, that rebuild.
And I think that the U.S. military is finally beginning to get this. Up to now their counter-terrorism policy has been to kill insurgents at almost any cost, and if civilians get in the way, that's written as "collateral damage." And this is so infuriating and humiliating for the population of Afghanistan, that it makes the recruitment for al-Qaeda very easy, when people are so disgusted by, for example, the burning of the Koran.
So the training of the troops has to change. And I think there are signs that it is beginning to change. The British military have always been much better at this. But there is one magnificent example for them to take their cue from, and that's a brilliant U.S. lieutenant colonel called Chris Hughes. And he was leading his men down the streets of Najaf -- in Iraq actually -- and suddenly people were pouring out of the houses on either side of the road, screaming, yelling, furiously angry, and surrounded these very young troops who were completely terrified, didn't know what was going on, couldn't speak Arabic. And Chris Hughes strode into the middle of the throng with his weapon above his head, pointing at the ground, and he said, "Kneel." And these huge soldiers with their backpacks and their body armor, wobbled to the ground. And complete silence fell. And after about two minutes, everybody moved aside and went home.
Now that to me is wisdom in action. In the moment, that's what he did. And it's happening everywhere now. You don't believe me? Have you asked yourselves why and how so many dictatorships have collapsed over the last 30 years? Dictatorships in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Mali, Madagascar, Poland, the Philippines, Serbia, Slovenia, I could go on, and now Tunisia and Egypt. And this hasn't just happened. A lot of it is due to a book written by an 80-year-old man in Boston, Gene Sharp. He wrote a book called "From Dictatorship to Democracy" with 81 methodologies for non-violent resistance. And it's been translated into 26 languages. It's flown around the world. And it's being used by young people and older people everywhere, because it works and it's effective.
So this is what gives me hope -- not just hope, this is what makes me feel very positive right now. Because finally human beings are getting it. We're getting practical, doable methodologies to answer my question: How do we deal with a bully without becoming a thug? We're using the kind of skills that I've outlined: inner power -- the development of inner power -- through self-knowledge, recognizing and working with our fear, using anger as a fuel, cooperating with others, banding together with others, courage, and most importantly, commitment to active non-violence.
Now I don't just believe in non-violence. I don't have to believe in it. I see evidence everywhere of how it works. And I see that we, ordinary people, can do what Aung San Suu Kyi and Ghandi and Mandela did. We can bring to an end the bloodiest century that humanity has ever known. And we can organize to overcome oppression by opening our hearts as well as strengthening this incredible resolve.
And this open-heartedness is exactly what I've experienced in the entire organization of this gathering since I got here yesterday. Thank you.
(Applause)