That is straight out of Gandhi. If people are not afraid of the dictatorship, that dictatorship is in big trouble. โฆ If you fight with violence, you are fighting with your enemyโs best weapon, and you may be a brave but dead hero.
Gene SharpDictatorships are never as strong as they think they are, and people are never as weak as they think they are.
Gene SharpAs soon as you choose to fight with violence you're choosing to fight against your opponents best weapons and you have to be smarter than that.
Gene SharpSo, he reasoned, if you can identify the sources of a government's power - people working in civil service, police and judges, even the army - then you know what a dictatorship depends on for its existence.
Gene SharpNonviolent action involves opposing the opponent's power, including his police and military capacity, not with the weapons chosen by him but by quite different means. Repression by the opponent is used against his own power position in a kind of political "ju-jitsu" and the very sources of his power thus reduced or removed, with the result that his political and military position is seriously weakened or destroyed.
Gene Sharp