“My method is conversation, not
coercion; it is the suffering, not
the suffering of the tyrant.”
In the What Does Democracy Look Like posting I listed three ingredients for a real Democracy, conflict, civil disobedience and suffering. Suffering is the most difficult of these three. Nobody wants to suffer, yet without suffering democracy cannot exist. We all accept that citizens of democracy must sacrifice and suffer to keep it. Yet no one wants to be the person doing the sacrificing.
My Gandhi Picture Quote from Mumbai, India today was to the point of suffering. The Gandhi quote was: “My method is conversation, not coercion; it is self-suffering, not the suffering of the tyrant.” The key to nonviolence is taking suffering, rejection and insults upon oneself and not delivering them on the one we are opposing.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, Jesuits, even goes so far in his Spiritual Exercises to pray to God for the “desire to be with you in accepting all wrongs and all rejections and all poverty, both actual and spiritual — and I deliberately choose this, if it is for your greater service and praise” Choosing suffering is a hard thing to consider but it is essential to democracy.
We honor our soldiers, even though we might disagree with the war they are fighting, for their willingness to suffer and die for the country. Leaders of great nations, like Nelson Mandela of South African who spent 27 years in prison, have suffered greatly to create democracy.
A real democracy does not come about by voting but by suffering. Fear of suffering and sacrifice is understandable but not acceptable to create a true democracy. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” Yes, true Democracy needs suffering.
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