A game to teach non violent resistance

[alfredo]

I saw this over a Wired.com and thought you might like it

http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/game/index.htm

From wired

http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,69372,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3

For Ivan Marovic, video games are serious business.

As one of the founders of the Serb student-resistance group Otpor ("resistance"), Marovic helped remove former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic from power. Since then, he has worked with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, or ICNC, helping human rights activists to organize pro-democracy movements.

This year, Marovic and ICNC will add another training tool to their arsenal: a computer game called A Force More Powerful, which teaches players the strategy of nonviolent conflict.

Created by BreakAway Games, the game leads players through simulations of real-life events, such as Gandhi's struggle for Indian independence, the civil rights movement in the American South, and Otpor's protests in Serbia.

[sui generis]

1. I agree in principle BUT

it's not the only tool in the toolbox.

Any strategy that you give a 100% commitment to in any game (including a fight) to the exclusion of other strategies is a weakness that can be exploited by your opponent.

I know that sounds Rovian but it is a fact that people like Rove would exploit.

World War II would not have been won by non-violent conflict, and certainly in the climate of the times, Jews, Gypsies, Gays, Socialists, and Orthodox Catholic priests did not have a chance of survival using non-violent resistance.

[alfredo]

2. You go with what works best.

Recently we have seen several non violent revolutions. Let's face it, a bloodless coup or non violent change is preferable to armed conflict.

Violence is bush's game, we shouldn't be sucked into it.

[alfredo]

3. tonight we just learned that we have achieved the impossible.

we got several peace groups, and progressive groups to pull together for a single goal. We are having an anti RWE, pro local water ownership rally. they are all on board, all willing to put their agendas on hold for this one event.