NONVIOLENCE | 2005-04-26
It is hard to believe today, but there was a time when hippies were brand new.
I remember the first time I ran into the hippie mentality. I was talking to a guy at the University of Virginia, and he said, "I could never kill anybody."
I was taken aback. Men brag a lot, and a lot of men brag about all the people they would kill if they could. That was macho crap and we all knew it. But it was the kind of male bragging I could understand.
This was the first man I had ever met who BRAGGED that he could never hurt anybody. I was astonished.
But I am quick. I finally said to him, "You know, you'd make a great slave."
The more I think about it, the more I think that that was a profound remark.