Surak's Soul - J.M. Dillard [11]
“Surak’s earliest teachings spoke of complete nonviolence, a truly noble concept. He carried no weapon, he offered no defense—yet he brought down the fiercest warlords Vulcan has ever seen with his words.
“We are Surak’s heirs. But we must never let ourselves grow complacent or arrogant, thinking that we are the only ones in the universe capable of such a great philosophy. Others have come to similar conclusions. Can anyone here think of another culture besides ours where one arose to teach peace?”
Stillness in the auditorium. No one replied, so Sklar gave the single-word answer.
“Earth.”
Had it been humans sitting in the audience, everyone would have gasped. As it was, the stillness grew heavier: T’Pol leaned forward ever so slightly, awaiting the explanation for such an unexpected answer.
“His name was Mohandas K. Gandhi, and he lived on twentieth-century Earth, in an area called India at the time. He was a Hindu, and believed in the principle of ahimsa, a Sanskrit term for the concept of total nonviolence toward every living being. Following ahimsa, Gandhi-ji, as he became known, convinced the Indians to give up their internal fighting and unite against a common foe: Great Britain, which had invaded their country and instituted a government which treated the Indians as inferior.
“His strategy was successful: the humans used nonviolent protest and, without killing, without war, shamed Britain into leaving their country. Gandhi-ji had a great victory.
“In the end, however, he was killed by one of his own, who was angered by the thought of cultural unity. His philosophy of peace failed to transform Earth; humans are still haunted by the specter of violence. Many terrible wars followed the death of Gandhi-ji, and in fact, India itself was divided into factions—not without more bloodshed.”
Sklar paused; had T’Pol believed him capable of emotion, she might have said that slyness flickered over his features.
“Here is the question I pose to you today, not in hope of a verbal answer, but in hope of inciting thought. It remains a matter of debate, even among those of us in the Kolinahr community.” Again he paused. “Should Gandhi-ji have defended himself from violence? Should he have carried a weapon in order to protect himself—not out of pure self-interest, but in order to protect his peace movement? Or was he right to let himself be destroyed?”
No one answered, but a slight rustling could be heard in the audience, as T’Pol and her peers glanced uneasily at each other, trying to gauge the general consensus. Finally, a young male rose and said, “With your permission, Sklar.”
The elder nodded.
“Surak bore no weapon, yet he managed to convince other Vulcans of the time to follow his philosophy. In fact, he took many risks by approaching notorious warlords.”
“Vulcans have a renowned capacity for self-discipline,” Sklar replied, “which perhaps allowed Surak’s movement to spread more easily, without Vulcans relapsing into violence. Surak also had tested many methods on himself for years before he began sharing his philosophy—methods for reducing our violent tendencies which we still employ today.” He motioned for the child to sit down, then addressed the crowd. “In fact, our own government employs protective devices as deterrents…devices which could even be called ‘weapons.’ We do not venture into space without weapons, in order to protect ourselves in case we encounter more violent species. Yet the chance exists that those weapons might be accidentally misused. Are we still justified in bearing them?”
T’Pol stood up. “With your permission, Sklar.”
Again, a nod.
“We have the right to defend ourselves,” she said, “against species who would bring about our destruction.”
“So, hypothetically,” Sklar responded, “if a warlike alien species threatened to destroy our planet, our entire civilization, we would be justified in protecting ourselves.”
“Most definitely,” T’Pol answered confidently.
“Even if it means destroying the alien species,” Sklar finished. His words had the