From: glenne@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Neuromancer )
Subject: Re: Pacifism vs. Resistance
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 17:55:01 GMT

>Hmm damn good point. Noting the monkey nature of humans , being passive
>is understood as helpless therefore as a target. In other words if you are
>passive you are inviting a master.
 
>My world view of pacifism is to be non-aggressive. If you can convince
>everyone that you can protect youself but have no intentions of attack then
>IMHO you are a pacifist.
>Don't get me wrong i would LOVE a planet without weapons,troublemakers
>juntas,dictatorships etc. But being passive will not help you, it will rather
>spread more talk about Peace while somebody else is bounding you.
 
Angelos,
 
I agree that being non-resistive does make one a target.  My point
is so what?   I truly believe that love is non-resistant, and if those
beliefs make me a target I don't care.  If I am killed, but have been
true to my beliefs, I have led a good life.  If I have to sacrifice my
belief in non-resistant love to survive a few extra years, then I truly
have died when I sacrificed my belief in loving.  Sure, an empty shell
goes on living, but it is a meaningless existence.
 
Don't disregard one simple point, physical death is inevitable, no
matter how many people I kill or imprison to prolong my own life.
 
There is one point that you made which I must emphatically contest.
>In other words if you are passive you are inviting a master.
>But being passive will not help you, it will rather spread more talk
>about Peace while somebody else is bounding you.
 
I believe the case is quite the opposite.  When you are confronted by
violence you have two choices.  The first is to become a slave of
violence, and the second is to transcend violence with love.
 
Battle ye not with monsters, for ye shall become a monster.
-My twist on a Nietzsche quote.
 
I believe that one should never use violence or coercion,  and one
should never give in to any coercion to do something that goes
against one's beliefs.  I may have confused you by not being specific
enough.  What others call passive resistance, I call non-resistance.
For example, suppose someone tells me to rob a bank or they will kill
me.  I would say do what you have to do, but I am not robbing a bank
for you.  I truly believe in give me liberty or give me death.  I do
not believe in give me liberty or I will harm you, though.  I follow
my own heart, and thus I am nobody's slave.  If I can call you a slave
to violence, however, since you freely choose it, then I must call
myself a slave to love, pacifism, and freedom though I freely choose
them.
 
But you must admit that your actions are, by what you have said,
controlled by your environment.  You are non-violent when your
environment is non-violent, and violent when your environment
is violent.  Sounds to me like everyone is your master.  If I
want to pull your strings, all I have to do is swing my fist
at your head and your arm swings back.  Conversely, my actions
are not dictated by the actions of others.  We have both freely
chosen our beliefs, but are you still as certain you are less of
a slave than I am?
 
Why focus on the monkey nature of people, when one can look
to our potential?
 
Glenn                                     glenne@csd4.csd.uwm.edu