A conviction that
war and crime is preventable, and a dedication to preventing them.
"We utterly deny all outward wars and strife, and fightings with outward
weapons, for any end, or under any pretense whatever; this is our
testimony to the whole world. The Spirit of Christ by which we are
guided is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil,
and again to move unto it; and we certainly know, and testify to the
world, that the Spirit of Christ, which leads us into all truth, will
never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons,
neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of the world."
Quakers declaration to Charles II, 1660
Please read this quote by
Kahlil Gibran,
in
particular the highlighted
lines.
War isn't being proactive, it's defeatist
and it's giving up. War is
about ignoring all kinds of realities (both subtle and
gross-cause and effects) and it's a convenient and
acceptable form of suicide, be it personal or societal. America
pretends to be happy, to have meaning; the reality is America is
careening towards self-destruction (purposefully, albeit
subconsciously) for the simple
reason materialistic values, and a life centering totally on comfort and pleasure
will
never be enough to sustain human beings.
Can people enjoy the benefits and
quality of life possible when we live in a cooperative and (freeform
or liberating)
communal manner and not take a pacifist stand?
It seems doubtful? Half of the premise in coming together for
this sort of sharing and
cooperation is to prevent those societal and personal negatives
which manifest in war and crime; the other half of the reason to
come together is for its personal benefits.
People come to
this conviction by many different means; experience, faith, study, the wisdom of
many fine thinkers, intuition, history and the observation of cause and effect.
Pacifism need come from a sentimental place.
For instance, on one level, theoretically people should perhaps be allowed to kill
each other if that is what they choose. The thing is, it's not
that simple. Most often, the people who cannot see any other
way to solve problems other than war, often and unfortunately, ask
or demand someone, anyone to do the fighting and everyone else to pay for it. This is not acceptable. Nor is
it acceptable, when those who wish to fight each other end up
hurting and killing others who just happened to be in the way or in
the vicinity of the fighting. This too is unacceptable.
It isn't desired to tell
others how to live, but any credible conviction that these things are
possible, surly must start with oneself living in right relationship with
others who feel similarly, and with one living in a way that actually
demonstrates what living like this would look like, how it would work and that
it is possible.
The
word "pacifism" has fallen out of favor these days it seems with
many; that's okay, it's not a very good word to describe this state
because preventing war is anything but a passive activity. One of
the reasons to live in such a low cost and efficient
community is so we will have the time to work (through education and
activism) on this issue of preventing war.
It is interesting that's some pretty enlightened
writers such as Derrick Jensen and others reject the pacifist stand.
Clearly they've not thought this particular issue through, even though they have written
with great attention to detail about negative effects of our Western
civilization in society; and served a great and noble purpose
in doing so.
Still, the paramount
causes of war and crime are exploitive economics, oppressive and desperate
economics through isolated individuals and families and overpopulation. Unless one
is willing to live by example, live a life that is not exploitative and maintain
a steady-state population, one is contributing to war.
There is practically
no way of not engaging in exploitive economics (and having a high quality of
life) except by living in a cooperative community of some sort, and living
more independently of, society at large. This is one of the reasons for the
creation of this community. This may not seem true on the surface, but when
one examines all the intricate economic interrelationships that go on in sustaining
our society, the truth of this begins to reveal itself. This certainly is not a
call for isolationism, particularly socially; but economically it seems, our
dependency or need to produce or consume great quantities of goods or services
might be best kept at a moderate level for all concerned; both us and the world
at large.
In conclusion, this
advocacy for pacifism is not about allowing oneself, or others to be
slaughtered by individuals or groups driven by madness, but that is not what organized warfare is about,
and to the greatest extent, never has been. Unless one is thinking about
prevention, reaching out and establishing relationships, getting to
know others, pacifism is probably not understood. War,
generally speaking, is about one provincial group attacking another.
It is this provincialism, small mindedness and ignorance that needs
to end.
