{"id":298,"date":"2010-11-24T07:55:48","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T07:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/?p=298"},"modified":"2010-11-24T07:58:50","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T07:58:50","slug":"stand-back-or-some-thoughts-upon-pacifism-and-nonviolence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/?p=298","title":{"rendered":"Stand Back , or Some Thoughts Upon Pacifism and Nonviolence."},"content":{"rendered":"

Reconciliation or social revolution ?<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been somewhat reluctant to write a long and
\nphilosophical article upon Pacifism and Nonviolence,
\nas most of what I would like to say has been written about
\nbefore now.<\/p>\n

Yet I still find myself reading a lot of works that confuses
\nNonviolent principles with those ideas which exclude any
\nreferences to humanitarian social justice.<\/p>\n

In other words:
\nThey confuse a Radical Nonviolent Philosophy with that of
\nreconciliation.
\nIn an earlier age this was called appeasement.<\/p>\n

Yet Appeasement was nothing to do with pacifism.<\/p>\n

Appeasement was a British government policy which was
\ndreamed up in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Realising that it faced a military threat in both Asia and
\nEurope, the policy of appeasement was cynically introduced in
\norder to buy time in which to rearm.<\/p>\n

My experience of campaigning has always been that there is
\nmore to recommend a form of Nonviolent Creative Conflict,
\nthan\u00a0 there is in working towards reconciliation.<\/p>\n

Just how one can engage in reconciliation with\u00a0 Arms Traders,
\nExploiters, militarists, or Butchers,
\nis an interesting question upon which I\u2019ve never received a
\nsatisfactory reply.<\/p>\n

Working for reconcilliation has always struck me as just
\nworking for a type of reform,
\nwhile what is really needed is nonviolent revolution.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of very nasty people out there doing some very
\nnasty things, and we need to stop them doing these very nasty
\nthings.<\/p>\n

There are also some very nasty things going on throughout
\nthe world, and one does need to know a lot about them in
\norder to stop them happening.<\/p>\n

Thus as a pacifist & campaigner I have had to educate myself
\nupon some horrific subjects.<\/p>\n

Thus I can tell you a lot about radiation sickness which comes
\nfrom my campaigning against nukiller power,
\nor about the effects of various weapons which I learnt about
\nwhile working to stop various aspects of the arms trade.<\/p>\n

I have also read the\u00a0 Ernst Friedrich, book
\nKrieg dem Kriege \/ Guerre \u00e0 la Guerre! \/ War against War!<\/p>\n

It is a book full of photos which show just what weapons can
\ndo to people.<\/p>\n

Not that I would recommend you to read this work,
\nas it contains some of the most ghastly photgraphs of what
\nweapons can do.<\/p>\n

A Little History.<\/em><\/p>\n

During World War One Lytton Strachey\u00a0 ( 1880\u2013 1932 ) was taken before a CO
\ntribuneral & asked:<\/p>\n

`Tell me, Mr Strachey, what would you do if you saw a German soldier trying to violate your sister?’<\/p>\n

His reply was:<\/p>\n

“I should try to interpose my body”<\/p>\n

Now look at this the other way around.<\/p>\n

If he were to be living in Germany at the time, then the question
\nmight of been:<\/p>\n

`Tell me, Hr Strachey, what would you do if you saw a French or British soldier trying to violate your sister?’<\/p>\n

His answer would of been exactly the same.<\/p>\n

Such an approach to what constitutes pacifism has always
\nstruck me as very simplistic.<\/p>\n

it also displays a very nationalist perspective.<\/p>\n

Those who would support conscription very rarely seem to get
\nthe point that pacifists object to all wars,
\nwhich is very different from not holding a\u00a0 nationalistic
\nperspective.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s almost like saying that one can\u2019t support ones local
\nfootball team unless you become a football hooligan.<\/p>\n

I have always like to quote the words of Salvor Hardin in the
\nSF novel “Foundation” by Isaac Asimov:<\/p>\n

\u2018Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.\u2019<\/p>\n

Examples not saints.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read some of the works of Gandhi, and Martin Luther King,
\nbut have Never Been Impressed by their ideas.<\/p>\n

This is because my Pacifist & Nonviolent ideology is based upon
\nan Atheistic and humanitarian view of the world.<\/p>\n

In any case I have always thought that the Authobiography of
\nGandhi \u2018 The story of my experiments with truth\u2019 was more
\ninteresting in terms of what he wrote about his diet than
\nanything else.<\/p>\n

While Martin Luther King was more of a religionist than a
\nnonviolent activist.
\n
\nHow I formed some of my Pacifist ideas.<\/em><\/p>\n

I formed a lot of my pacifist ideas by reading such books as
\nEnds and means by Huxley,
\nand\u00a0 the Jim Peck autbiography \u2018Upper Dogs Versus Underdog\u2019.<\/p>\n

Neither of these authors would I venerate as saints,
\nbut that is exactly how many people tent to view both Gandhi &
\nKing.<\/p>\n

Is it any wonder that I\u2019m also an atheist ?<\/p>\n

Of course a lot of the work of pacifists is in terms of
\npreventing violence from occurring in the 1st place.<\/p>\n

This can be by countering social injustices,
\nor in opposing the violence which is inevitable within any rigid
\nhierarchical structure such as the state.<\/p>\n

Practicing Nonviolence is very much like the kind of thing
\nwhich one learns to do while attending any \u2018personal safety\u2019
\ncourse.<\/p>\n

Stand well out of harms way,
\nor out of the arms length of anyone whom might pose a threat,
\n& thus throw a punch to you.<\/p>\n

In other words:
\nby this kind of nonviolent action you can avoid the danger of
\ngetting yourself & others hurt in the affray,
\nwhile at the same time you can sort out just what the
\nunderlining problem(s) might be.<\/p>\n

Many of the world conflicts could be avoided if people were
\nto remember this one simple idea.<\/p>\n

Then having avoided the threat of violence can you get on with
\nworthing for some kind of socialjustice.<\/p>\n

Well there you have it. <\/em><\/p>\n

My Pacifism & Nonviolent philosophy is not just based upon
\nhumanitarian values, but upon what is a very practical view\u00a0 of
\nhow we might solve various social problems.<\/p>\n

This also includes just how we can solve our various
\necological problems.<\/p>\n

That is why I also see my vegetarianism as an extention of both
\nby Nonviolent or humanitarian principles,
\nand as a very practical solution to the ecological mess which
\nwe all face right now.<\/p>\n

Now you can see just why I\u2019ve still to write a philosophical
\narticle up Pacifism and Nonviolence.<\/p>\n

I always did have a very practical mind set,
\nand it shows in the way that I view my Pacifism and Nonviolent
\nideology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reconciliation or social revolution ? I\u2019ve always been somewhat reluctant to write a long and philosophical article upon Pacifism and Nonviolence, as most of what I would like to say has been written about before now. Yet I still find myself reading a lot of works that confuses Nonviolent principles with those ideas which exclude … Continue reading Stand Back , or Some Thoughts Upon Pacifism and Nonviolence.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.theproject.me.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}