Pacifism

By GRAEME LAWSON

 I had words today with a pacifist. I am not a pacifist. He was telling me that the world’s problems would be gone if there was no violence, and I contemplated this for a while. The statement is no more preposterous than the puritan idea of a perfect enclave set in the old USA.

It is a wonderful feeling to think of such a blissful utopia as possible. However, it is not so we are forced to think of the facts that actually surround the issue. Man had a tendency toward violence. This is undeniable and inescapable.

War is a necessary tool of peace. Some general once said that, when looking for peace, a nation must prepare for war, and this is true. To protect our way of life from those that wish to do us harm, and there will always be those that wish to do us harm, we must be prepared to strike quickly and efficiently to suppress the enemy that comes.

As people, combat has existed for many, many thousands of years, and we will never escape the pain that comes with it.

Like communism, Pacifism is an ideal associated to the principle that people will be willing to drop their way of life. This will not be.

As a society dependent on resources, we will fight for the control of them in an attempt to take them for ourselves. Essentially, what it breaks down to is that greed is the number one factor in the existence of humanity and society. 

As humans, it is our innate tendency to take what it is that we need. And as humans we need to realize that the pain and suffering that is real amongst us will not go away with the invention of an ideal that professes non violence.