This film shows how those of us born after 1982—the "millennial generation"— look at war and peace. For our entire adult lives, we have lived with war—in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East. We look at our parents and think of the 1960's peace movement as an idealistic failure that dissipated into the consumerism and materialism of the 1980s, when we were born. Through interviews with our peers in Portland, and other regions of America, we find a pervasive cynicism, denial and apathy with regard to the very idea that we can do anything to reduce global violence. We hear: "We've got to settle for less."
Our consciousness is filled with images of 9-11, "the war president" George W. Bush, Afghanistan and the Taliban, Seal Team 6. Our heroes are most often physical warriors in blockbuster films like Iron Man, the Avengers, The Dark Knight, and Zero Dark Thirty. And now we have many new nihilistic films about apocalypse, zombies, global disaster. We came into the world with the birth of rap music in the 1980s, with strong currents that celebrate violence and obsession with material wealth and celebrity. In our adult life, Eminem stands as the number one artist on Billboard. In the last few years, we see the rise of the multi-billion dollar cage fighting industry.
With all this filling our consciousness, and so many attractive distractions competing for our attention on our smart phones and I-Pads, we tend to forget completely about the heroes and successes of nonviolence when we were children: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the "Velvet Revolution" led by Vaclav Havel in the Czech Republic, the nonviolent collapse of the Soviet Union, the story of Nelson Mandela and the end of Apartheid South Africa. In our minds and hearts, the violence of the past decade overshadows these events. We have been given new narratives with names like "Shock and Awe" about a duty to invade and kill the "Butcher of Baghdad" Saddam Hussein. If remembered at all, the successes of nonviolence are too often disparaged by critics who focus on the faults of past heroes to dismiss their main message and achievements. Yes, Gandhi did write a letter to Hitler. Vaclav Havel, like JFK, was a womanizer. And it is easy to write off others like John Lennon, with his "Bed-In" for peace with Yoko Ono. All human beings have failings; it is wrong to point to those human failing to try to disparage and diminish the great success of nonviolence in history. In fact, from 1900-2006, nonviolent civil campaigns were more than twice as successful in achieving their objectives than violent campaigns.[1]
The film will ask: where are the heroes for our generation like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela? Life is good here in Portland Oregon, so why should we even care? Are we too narcissistic and self-centered in our social media bubbles to even look beyond ourselves? Obama said in a recent speech on anti-terror strategy that we have to find a new way to look at the struggle... or "it will define us." Will the millennial generation be defined by the war on terror that has clouded our entire adult lives? Or, will we be able to look at the struggle in a new way and defend freedom by expressing freedom? Can we let the attractive power of truth, justice, and liberty to lead the way? Many young people are in Portland "to retire." We look deeper and find those who inspire, who are being the change they want to see in the world in Portland and beyond.
We will show inspiring individuals and organizations—the heroes of nonviolence today. We find individuals building a peaceful "food community" centered around a local restaurant. We find young people developing the "Abraham's Path" in the Middle East. We find those teaching conflict resolution skills in schools and communities. We talk with those involved in leading NGOs promoting nonviolent strategy and the work of Gene Sharp, Peter Ackerman and others. We go to Turkey, the West Bank, to talk with the millennial generation there. We ask them if they have any heroes of nonviolence. We find that we share core passions and commonalities and that we think differently in many ways. They are interested and surprised to hear of our life in Portland. We go back to Portland and share our stories with those in Pioneer Square.
The point of the film is to bring the heroes of nonviolence into our awareness, into the mind of the millennial generation, and show practical steps we can take now. It shows us that we have a choice of heroes.
