On Pacifism

Pacifism: Opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes (Merriam-Webster)

I think pacifists are cool.

Consciously choosing to achieve one's aims by means that are not physically harmful to another human is, in my estimation, noble and honorable.

The key, it seems, is choice. The power gained by having the ability to turn the other cheek comes from having some other option.

More and more, I am discovering my martial path as one that allows me to more easily and fully live out Christ's commandments of love and compassion. This is one more example of God's great gift of free will. Explaining my position here will require me to delve a bit into Christian Theology, so bear with me.

God created us for a singular purpose, and that purpose is to love Him. He could have, of course, made us so that we had no choice but to show signs of love, respect, fealty, and fear. Had He, the whole world would appear to love Him. Love, though, is not a thing borne of compulsion. In order for any of us to love Him according to His will, all of us had to be created with the choice not to. The upshot is that many choose to reject God, but those who accept His role in their lives are free to love Him freely.

Now when we look at pacifism through that philosophical lens, we can see that only by being free to choose violence is non-violence a choice and not a requirement thrust upon us by limited options.

Why say all of this and take up server space? I mean, after all, as mammals don't we have a natural capacity to do harm to one another? One does not need to study how to inflict bodily damage on someone else, does one? Isn't that all instinctual? Actually, yes. That's not my point, but it does give me another idea for a blog post relating to what makes Human Beings something other than instinctual animals.

The thrust of my argument is scalability and appropriateness. By learning to be better warriors, we have a more diverse tool kit to respond to a wider array of conflictual situations. Rather than being forced to rely on fight or flight instinct, we can use warrior training to de-escalate, safely apprehend, or skillfully remove ourselves so that no harm need come to ourselves or our adversary.

Rather than "Peace Through Non-Violence," "Pacifism Through Power!"