The words "peace" and "pacifism" have always annoyed me. Every time I hear these words, some part of my brain starts playing a Cheech and Chong movie. Another part of my brain revisits endless arguments about non-violent civil disobedience. Between those two mental associations are a lot of other things, but mostly things I don't like. Yet when I really sit down and think about what I want my life to be like, I'm not vibing the whole Valhalla, eternal war thing. On the right day, I could even enjoy reading some Tolstoy. So when my brain marbles are knocking about at the utterances of "peace" and "pacifism", somehow these obnoxious associations stand out.
Well, that's me. What about you? At first impression, what do the words "peace" and "pacifism" bring to your mind?
Moving beyond those first impressions, what are your deeper thoughts about peace and pacifism?
As anarchists, these have been important questions throughout our history. During times of war - as if it isn't always times of war - these questions seem even more relevant. Is peace activism an important anarchist project for you? What have your experiences of pacifists and pacifism been within anarchist spaces or spaces that anarchists have entered into? How many times have you heard the "Gandhi and Dr. King" routine? Do you hear it more now or less now? Are there times when advocating for peace and pacifism is good and other times when it is very bad?
Are there important differences between a peaceful daily life and a peaceful society?
Comments
i'm told the meme goes "nice
lumpy (not verified) Mon, 06/24/2024 - 18:48
i'm told the meme goes "nice binary ya got there, wonder what lies beyond it?"
but no snark intended, it's a good prompt
For me, this topic always makes me circle back to an idea that's informed all my political projects for the last 10 years. Long time ago, i was also constantly annoyed by hippy liberal activists and their bad faith arguments but equally dismayed when i watched young militants marching in to a meat grinder with no strategy and hardly any capacity to fight.
So i figured there must be a lot of space between liberal pacifism (or just-stay-home apathy) and joining a death cult to eagerly martyr ourselves. why wouldn't there be a huge space between those two things? they're pretty far apart.
So it turns out?! There's totally lots of things that aren't either of those two, objectively stupid things?! weird, i know!
Almost makes you wonder if the "rah-rah, let's all get shot or jailed immediately, because we suck at this" rhetoric ... is another form of counter insurgency, not unlike the liberal pacifism. it's just meant for the other type of person
I'm of the opinion that peace
Tristram (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2024 - 02:04
I'm of the opinion that peace and pacifism is an internally generated reaction based on values grounded in the practice of an empathic reciprosity as a social custom in ones interrelationships. This begins after birth in whatever cesspool on this filthy planet one finds oneself born into, and if it has likewise members (mother and father hopefully), who weren't ignorant and barbaric morons. Of course, the question arises, what was in their minds on that particular night 9 months before my birth, did my parents contemplate the repercussions of their actions that amorous night. Or am I, (was I ) an expendable result of an ignorant and callous union?
I've long understood violence
anon (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2024 - 06:32
I've long understood violence to be a condition of the world, something that just is & can be (re)distributed in helpful or unhelpful ways, but not eliminated. This makes me "not a pacifist". With this understanding it's easy to reframe "nonviolent" activism as simply mobilizing violence differently (by accepting & highlighting its deployment against the activist, or attempting to limit how it's used against a movement more generally) rather than actually "renouncing" it as it believes itself to be doing.
In the casual, "violence is breaking stuff or hurting others or whatever else disruptive" sense that's used by many people, including but not at all exclusive to liberal peace police, I still think there's room for interpretations of pacifism that I can fuck with.
For example, understanding that in the above loose definition few things on the planet I live in are more violent than state & corporate institutions, acting against those institutions can be understood as pushing for peace, even using violence against them by understanding that greater violence is contained in their continued existence.
Some anarchist considerations:
https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2023/10/04/every-compromise-in-defense-…
https://scenes.noblogs.org/post/2023/10/05/flyer-every-compromise-in-de…
the essays "On Moralism, Relation, and (Anti)Militarism" and "Expropriate, Use, Destroy AKA An Anarchist Anti-Gun Manifesto" from this collection.
https://archive.org/download/zines-anarchism/Fist_Full_of_Concrete-scre…
https://archive.org/download/zines-anarchism/Fist_Full_of_Concrete.pdf
Less famous but more developed than "How Nonviolence Protects the State"
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19981329W/The_failure_of_nonviolence?ed…
^ here we see that the
lumpy (not verified) Wed, 06/26/2024 - 16:41
In reply to I've long understood violence by anon (not verified)
^ here we see that the greatest writer and thinker on @news is STILL and will always be, anon!
peace
peace enjoyer (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2024 - 08:18
peace is nice, but all -ists and -isms become annoying. it’s more peaceful without them
how aren’t all pacifists
anon (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2024 - 08:39
how aren’t all pacifists vegan, and how aren’t all vegans, pacifists?
Deep shit. You've been
anon (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2024 - 11:20
In reply to how aren’t all pacifists by anon (not verified)
Deep shit. You've been awarded Anews gold.
Peace and Pacifism are not
anon (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2024 - 12:17
Peace and Pacifism are not the same, so putting them together as if they were is a choice.
This world (what is meant by "world" ? the planet? the political situation? states? ) is not inherently one way only. Neither violence nor peace are baseline conditions of existence. Yes, beings eat each other and if one wants to label that violence, that too is a choice.
Pacifism is a political response to the violence of States.
Peace is a pleasant condition one can engage with, but so are a lot of other modes, such as self defense or learning. Presumably one is not at peace all the time, unless dead.
Watching the wild beings in my tiny patch of yard, I do not see only violence or a war of all against all, I see resting, bathing, playing, as well as wariness, territorial squabbles, just vibing, and yes killing and eating each other.
How the (natural) world is is variable, unlike the exclusively Human political world. As an anarchist, my desire is to be clear about which is being talked about when. By which I mean, peace vis a vis the state is one thing, peace in nature is quite another.
I like peace. I like being able to defend myself. These go together.
Peace Gods.
anon (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2024 - 12:58
Peace Gods.
Peace is the absence of confusion (chaos) and the absence of confusion is Order. Law and Order is the very foundation upon which our Science of Life rest. Supreme Mathematics is the Law and Order of the Universe, this is the Science of Islam, which is Peace. Peace is Supreme Understanding between people for the benefit of the whole. We will achieve Peace, in ourselves, in our communities, in our nation and in the world. This is our ultimate goal.
This science of Supreme Mathematics is the key to understanding man's relationship to the universe.
Peace.
ANARCHY IS ORDER
anon (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2024 - 19:54
In reply to Peace Gods. by anon (not verified)
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY...
Let freedom ring with a
anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 00:59
In reply to Peace Gods. by anon (not verified)
Let freedom ring with a buckshot -- but not just yet. First we need to truly understand the nature of the threat. The pale man walks in the threshold of darkness: roughly 20, 000 years ago the first humans evolved with the phenotypical trait, genetic recessive, blue eyes, blonde hair and white skin. Albinism apparently was a sin to the original man (Africans) so the mutants traveled North of the equator; called Europeans later, the first race haters -- so here's the Devil's alpha to the beta. 'Cause history's best qualified to teach one, quoting German philosopher Schopenhauer "Every white man is a faded or a bleached one." Migration created further mutation Genetic drifts, evolution through recombination. Adaptation to the climate as the Caucus Mountain man reverted to that of a primate: savage neanderthals, until the late Paleolithic age; that's when the Black Grimaldi man came. With the symbol of the dragon (fire and art), check cave paintings in France and Spain to the Venus of Willendorf. Around 2000 B.C. Southern Russians migrate in small units; those who travel West populated Europe. Those who went East settled in Iran, known as Aryans. 1,500 B.C. some crossed the Khyber Pass into India and created Hinduism, the first caste system, the origins of racism. A white dot on the forehead meant elite, the black dot - defeat; untrustable, untouchables They wrote the holy Vedas in Sanskrit; that's the language that created Greek, German, Latin and English. Now the Minoans around 2000 B.C. starts on the island of Crete, in the Agean Sea.
The Greek culture begins Western Civilization, but "Western Civilization" means "White Domination. "Myceneans learned from KMT (called Egypt in Greek). It existed since at least 3000 B.C, creating geometry and astronomy. This knowledge influenced Plato, Socrates and Hippocrates. Because Imhotep, the real father of medicine, was worshipped in Greece and Rome in the form of a Black African. The word Africa comes from the Greek "Aphrike" Meaning "without cold"; the word philosophy means "love of knowledge" stole from first man -- Greek power expands, the first Greek fraternities band. The word gymnasium is Greek for "naked" This was the place where adolescent boys were educated, and molested. This was accepted because Greek culture was homosexual, for example: Sappho trained girls on the island of Lesbos -- hence, the word lesbian.
Ultimately no one lives
GO3 Tue, 06/25/2024 - 14:26
Ultimately no one lives outside the processes of creation and destruction. There may be many small creatures beneath our feet and even worlds. In your lifetime even if you are very peaceful and passive you will still destroy many things that you may not be aware of. The Jaines wear masks so as not to harm the gnats and sweep the walkway in front of them so as not to step on ants. As a Jehovah's Witness kid I was raised to be basically a pacifist though they wouldn't use that term. I was taught to be no part of this world and discouraged from military service, going to college, pursuing a career, engaging in politics or anything worldly or violent . As a teen I was introduced to some anarchist and leftist concepts and moderated some of these tendencies. The issue at hand is what I call scientific anarchism, the debate about whether violent or nonviolent tactics or diversity of tactics are best in contemporary situations. Of course anarchists have historically engaged in a full spectrum of tactics including pacifism to extreme violence. Contemporary anarchists tend to inhabit the middle ground. I think this debate needs to be examined closely because the police have developed a full suite of tactics and strategies for dealing with protesters and rioters and I think our science is lagging behind a bit so it seems like a useful conversation to me.
What, drawn, and talk of
Prince of Cats (not verified) Tue, 06/25/2024 - 14:57
What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word,
As I hate hell, all capitalists, authoritarians, white folk, and thee:
Have at thee, coward!
I try to use as much violence
GEF (not verified) Wed, 06/26/2024 - 20:58
I try to use as much violence as I can on those I can't stand, those that betray me, those who belittle me, those fucking normies who think they're the shit, and ideally CRUSH MY ENEMIES... so at last I can have peace.
Namaste!
Show us your muscles, brow!
anon (not verified) Wed, 06/26/2024 - 22:03
In reply to I try to use as much violence by GEF (not verified)
Show us your muscles, brow! How much you bench?
muscles are air balloons
anon (not verified) Wed, 06/26/2024 - 22:29
In reply to Show us your muscles, brow! by anon (not verified)
Everyone knows this since at least 1982, where you've been?
And bench is for normies. I full body-lift my 200 pounds carcass 12x3 times at the bar almost everyday, brow.
I would like peace but the
anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 05:31
I would like peace but the first priority is to defeat Putin and Hamas. Some pacifists are, sadly, influenced by authoritarian imperialist views.
Is that you, Joe Biden?
anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 08:27
In reply to I would like peace but the by anon (not verified)
Is that you, Joe Biden? Welcome to Anews, comrade. Very anarchist priorities you have there I think you will fit right in.
What about the peace pipe?
anon (not verified) Thu, 06/27/2024 - 16:22
"The words 'peace' and 'pacifism' have always annoyed me."
What about the peace pipe? do u gotta a problem with that?
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