Hibbert.pa@XEROX.COM (09/04/86)
Keith Lynch wrote:
"You could argue that if only everyone on Earth
(and beyond Earth) was pacifistic, that pacifism
would work. This is true, but it is also true that if
there was just one exception, just one person willing
to use violence, he could take over the world and
enslave everyone."
I disagree. All the non-pacificist could do would be to kill
pacifists. The point that pacifism makes is that if each of us
refuses to use violence, even on threat of violence to ourselves, then
none of us can be a tool for enslaving others.
This leads to a question I have for people might be worried about a
soviet attack on the US: What would they do once they had conquered
the government? If we all refused to go along with the government, it
would be powerless.
In a similar vein, the Feb 3 issue of The New Yorker has an excellent
and inspiring article on the Polish opposition movement, by Jonathan
Schell. For a period of a few years before and during the rise of
Solidarity, there was an active movement of individuals that attempted
to live as if they were free. Here's a short excerpt from the
article:
"The classic formula for revolution is first to seize state power and
then use that power to do the good things you believe in. In the
Polish revolution, the order was reversed....Its simple but radical
guiding principal was to start doing the things you think should be
done, and to start being what you think society should become.... The
opposition's style has been to act "as if" Poland were already a free
country. And once those in opposition began to act that way something
unexpected happened...the "as if" started to melt away.
... While this style of action was non-violent, "nonviolence" seems
both too restrictive and too negative a term with which to describe
it: too restrictive because, along with being non-violent, the
movement was also nondeceptive, nonsecretive, and non many other
obnoxious things; and too negative because the deepest source of its
strength was not any form of abstinence but, rather, the positive,
energetic, open pursuit of a free and just society through incessant
public action.
... Non-violent action, far from being helpless in the face of
totalitarianism, turns out to be especially well suited to fighting
it....The government crackdown has taken its toll, but the spirit of
opposition is alive....The arrests are made, but people are not
intimidated. They live now in what may be the most curious conditions
to have developed in Poland so far: autonomy without liberty--freedom
together with jail."
Chris
-------kfl%mx.lcs.mit.edu@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU (09/29/86)
From: Hibbert.pa@Xerox.COM
I disagree. All the non-pacificist could do would be to kill
pacifists.
Isn't that enough?
The point that pacifism makes is that if each of us refuses to use
violence, even on threat of violence to ourselves, then none of us
can be a tool for enslaving others.
What about the threat of violence to others? What if they drag you
off to a slave labor camp and say to you that if you don't start
working that your wife and kids (standing next to you) will be shot?
I think you underestimate the power of terror. The only reasonable
response to the threat of violence is the threat of retaliation. The
only reasonable response to actual violence is actual retaliation,
perhaps after a few warnings.
This leads to a question I have for people might be worried about
a soviet attack on the US: What would they do once they had
conquered the government? If we all refused to go along with the
government, it would be powerless.
If they have all the guns, and all the sources of wealth, it is a
moot point whether the people would be starved or shot into
submission. Probably starved, it's cheaper.
I am very dubious about Poland. I don't know what "freedom together
with jail" could mean. Have you ever been in jail? It is horrible
even in this country. It is easy to sit back in our easy chairs and
glibly talk about how one can simply choose to disregard mere material
discomforts like imprisonment, starvation, torture, and death. If
someone can be both happy and sane under such circumstances, more
power to him. But I am very skeptical. And I am prepared to defend
myself rather than surrender to such tyrants. I have heard of no
freedom in Poland or in any communist country.
...Keith
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