The Third Harmony: Nonviolence and the New Story of Human Nature

Michael Nagler as a loyal expert to Gandhian style of resistance, has recently released his last book entitled: The Third Harmony: Nonviolence and the New Story of Human Nature. In this work he discusses concepts such as nonviolence, constructive program, mass media and commercial, the old and the new story, the roadmap model, and the role of science. He also reviews the previous studies on resistance that have been done by scholars such as Johan Galtung, Erica Chenoweth, and Stellan Vinthagen. Nagler attempts to remind us who we truly are? And what the purpose of the world is? He challenges the dominant misleading narrative of our time and presents a new perspective that roots in human nature. Moreover, he emphasizes on the significance of cultural change and "the old story" (prevailing paradigm) which are the causes of chaotic and violent world. His deep understanding of Gandhian perspective leads to a comprehensive explanation on our inner power and our ability to change society based on such a power. Through his insightful exploration, he expands our understanding of nonviolent power as a strong tool in transforming our world. Many problems such as separateness, environmental crisis, and social injustice root in "the old story" that empowered by the current paradigm of competition, individualism and purposelessness.

In the Introduction, Nagler argues for a new paradigm which he calls it "the new story" and nonviolence is the key to this story; it starts transformation from within and then human beings can change the entire universe into a better, safer, happier places. Furthermore, he explains his personal experience on the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at UC Berkeley and the Metta Center for Nonviolence in Chapter four. In fact, Nagler discusses the path he has paved from an enthusiastic student who searched for social change to an expert in nonviolence. He presents the book in four parts and seven chapters. In the introduction he explains definition of keywords, such as nonviolence, the new story and the third harmony. Part one (Lifting the Curtain) includes Chapter one: The Power of Story, and titles such as Lifting the Curtain, the Story and Culture, and Flipping Everything. The author in this part talks about several true stories of heroes who saved lives of hundred people by mastering their terrors and applying nonviolent means.

 In the case of culture, Nagler believes that every culture has at its core a narrative and a story about universe and human nature- page 30. And now our story is the biggest problem of this era; this narrative tells that we are separate material beings in a random world. Furthermore, in the last part of this chapter, he clarifies the negative and dangerous aspect of everyday bombardment of individuals with commercial messages that not aim at helping us think critically, rather considers people as material objects who are burdened with anxiety to consume the earth's material resources more than their need. Accordingly, the old story completely fails to account for the most precious parts of who we are. The second part (Telling the New Story) of the volume contains Chapter Two: Roadmap I; Basic Training: Living the New Story and Chapter Three: Roadmap II, Reconstructive Program, and some other subject matters. Here, Nagler presents the roadmap and discusses its subcategories base on Gandhi's attitudes; "new story creation" is at top center in this roadmap as a change underlying and facilitating all other things. In the third part (What Changemakers Know), which includes Chapter four: The World Within and Chapter five: In the Mirror of Science, the writer talks about economy of peace, restorative justice, unity in diversity, competition and the new story, the power of story, and the relationship between science and the new story. In pages 59-63 Nagler represents the case of Mondragon cooperatives in Spain in 1985 and Grameen Bank system in Bangladesh in 1983 by Muhammed Yunus as the examples of constructive programs. Accordingly, constructive work is always helpful, but it becomes constructive program only when it runs up against the oppositional system. As Andrew Rigby in Gandhi's Constructive Program mentioned, Nagler also noted that constructive resistance by its very nature is obstructive to the defective system it is replacing. As Rigby discussed violence can be anything violent to nonviolent or confrontational to circumventing, and to Nagler, some constructive programs like Gandhi's spinning campaign is nonconfrontational, but some like Salt March is confrontational and challenging unjust laws. Constructive resistance resulted from unity, interconnectedness, dignity and cooperation. Moreover, he represents some examples of applying restorative justice at schools and prisons. According to Nagler, racism is the most intractable and painful aspect of violence in schools and jails- page 72. From the new story point of view, racism is mistaking diversity for separateness- lading to that feeling of superiority to the "other". And finally, the last part of the book- part four (A Call to Action)- that contains Chapter six: Finishing the Job, Chapter seven: A Call to Action and Conclusion as the last part. Here, Nagler talks about more people and other cases which contradiction between violence and nonviolence is at the center of them. One of the strengths of this book is addressing both the experience of pioneers such as Gandhi and ordinary people- who without any training just through applying the inner power and nonviolence saved many lives. These people and their stories were chosen from various situations: from an official in Iraq to a teacher in the US, but all share characteristics that mentioned earlier; their stories are tangible; therefore, we can identify with them. In fact, it is combination of thoughts of researchers and practitioners at the same time, which enriches the value of their experience. Fluent understandable language is another advantage of this volume that covers all readers with any amount of knowledge about nonviolence.