Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Active Nonviolence

Handling nonviolence in a work of fiction is tricky.  In settings where characters are confronted with violence, how do you integrate the idea of nonviolence in a way that is compelling?  More often than not, the subject is approached in one of two ways.  Either a character engages in a passive nonviolence, where they become passive actors who refuse to engage in confrontation, or they extol the virtues of nonviolence while still engaging in violence.  Either of these can be interesting when handled well, but it's a shame there is such a limited scope in ways that most entertainment deals with violence.

There is another way, however.  The Hayao Miyazaki film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind features a protagonist, Nausicaa, who has her own approach to nonviolence.  She engages in nonviolence throughout the entire movie, save for one scene.  Rather than her nonviolence being a passive act, however, her brand of nonviolence is an active one.  This post will discuss and analyze what I mean by active nonviolence, and how this challenges us to think about the subject in ways that other films that advocate "nonviolence" are not able to do.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

Who needs violence when you have an awesome air glider?

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind does not take place in a happy world.  A thousand years before the start of the film, the Earth was devastated thanks to humanity's constant need to go to war with itself.  The land is now covered in a toxic jungle that continues to spread over the land, destroying all human settlements it comes into contact with.  It is in this setting that we see different groups of people engage in a desperate, often violent quest for survival that doesn't have clearly defined "bad" guys, a common theme in Miyazaki's works.

Our protagonist here is Nausicaa, the princess of the Valley of the Wind (gotta love straight to the point movie titles).  Despite the human ugliness going on around her, Nausicaa refuses to act violently.  Unlike most characters who choose nonviolence, however, her brand of nonviolence isn't to passively sit around and refuse to engage in what is going on around her.  Rather, she bravely puts herself in the middle of the turmoil anyway.  She takes as many risks and is just as much a part of the action as anyone else.  This is what I will call "active nonviolence", where the character is ready to actively engage in what's going on and continue pushing forward nonviolently.  Even in the face of danger.

The movie does a great job of establishing Nausicaa as a character based in active nonviolence right away.  When she sees a smoke signal in the distance and goes to find out someone is being chased by a giant insect, she decides neither to avoid the confrontation nor try to harm the insect until it runs away out of fear.  Rather, she runs straight in and uses her ability to sooth the insects to deescalate the conflict.  She is very much in danger the whole time, but that doesn't stop her.  She displays the same amount of bravery and determination as any other action hero you can think of- if not more- and she does it without resorting to violence.

What's good, other action blockbusters?

The rest of the movie shows her continually pushing forward on a path of active nonviolence.  She guides the bugs from the crashed Tolmekian airship back to the jungle instead of fighting them, she stands on top of an airship to stop Prince Asbel of Pejite from firing on the Tolmekian airships (which she has every reason to want to see destroyed), she goes to save the very same Asbel when he crashes in the jungle and is being swarmed by the insects that he has upset, she rushes the (armed) Pejite's metal air balloon holding the baby ohmu as it fires upon her, she stops that same baby ohmu from stepping into the acid lake water by physically holding it back even at the expense of her own well-being, and she soothes the rage of the ohmu herd by calmly standing in from of them.  These are just some of the major examples.

So, we have active versus passive nonviolence, but what does it matter?  Well, in terms of both entertainment and philosophy, it actually means quite a bit.  The problem with more passive nonviolent characters is that it is hard to put them in chaotic situations where their nonviolence is engaging for an audience, and it can also be difficult to make it feel like there is truly something at stake because of the lack of urgency from that character.  If they're calmly standing around and avoiding confrontation, why should we care?  With Nausicaa, however, we are rarely left with a dull moment or without an idea of what exactly is at stake.  She charges forward at the same pace as any other character in an action movie, she is always proactively standing up for what she believes in, and her urgency in doing all of this subtly reminds us how much is on the line.

Beyond just entertainment, however, this movie allows us to think critically about exactly what nonviolence can achieve.  Even if it's an unfair sentiment, it's easy to call passively nonviolent people cowards and be done with it.  But what about those who participate in active nonviolence, those who put themselves in the middle of chaos while still refusing violence?  Revolutions for democracy and human rights have been won by nonviolence, like in Guatemala in 1944.

Guatemala's first democratically elected president,

Juan Jose Arevalo, basically the Lord Yupa of Guatemalan politics.

Having such a powerful, proactive representation of what nonviolence is capable of in characters like Nausicaa doesn't just make for compelling entertainment.  It challenges us to think what nonviolent action is able to achieve.  It challenges us to question when violence really is or isn't necessary.  If Nausicaa found a way to save her people from annihilation and stop all the different human factions from warring without harming anyone, and if 1944 Guatemala could overthrow dictator Jorge Ubico to install a democracy, what else can nonviolence do?

That's a question that's important to reflect on.  Most of us won't ever be involved in direct violence in our lives after high school, but violence is everywhere.  Our views on violence affect how we vote, how we relate to other people, how we understand the media we consume, how we raise our children.  There are ripple effects that are too significant for us to simply ignore violence, and our understanding of and relationship to it.  With characters like Nausicaa, we're challenged to think in a way that few other nonviolent protagonists can.

So thanks, Hayao Miyazaki, for creating a character that helps us think about our relationship with violence.  Hopefully more characters like Nausicaa continue to pop up in popular entertainment.  The stakes are too important for us to not have characters like her around.