Asymmetrical Information

From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:

The Limits of Pacifism

Scott Simon's editorial in the Wall Street Journal today describes the limits of pacifism. Simon is a quaker with a long career as a war reporter. He recalls an example where pacifism egged on Hitler:

n 1933 the Oxford Student Union conducted a famous debate over whether it was moral for Britons to fight for king and country. The exquisite intellects of that leading university reviewed the many ways in which British colonialism exploited and oppressed the world. They cited the ways in which vengeful demands made of Germany in the wake of World War I had helped to kindle nationalism and fascism. They saw no moral difference between Western colonialism and world fascism. The Oxford Union ended that debate with this famous proclamation: "Resolved, that we will in no circumstances fight for king and country." Von Ribbentrop sent back the good news to Germany's new chancellor, Hitler: The West will not fight for its own survival. Its finest minds will justify a silent surrender.

In short, the best-educated young people of their time could not tell the difference between the deficiencies of their own nation, in which liberty and democracy were cornerstones, and a dictatorship founded on racism, tyranny and fear.

This makes sense. Pacifism worked within systems that have democratic, egalitarian principles (British India/Gandhi, the United States/Martin Luther King). The pacifists had an essential good within their system to which they could appeal. In addition, these successful pacifists operated within their own cultures, requiring that a government harm its own citizens to beat them down. Osama bin Laden and his rich-boy terrorist network and the Taliban are lacking in principles that would allow pacifism to work. These folks are happy to kill their own citizens in large numbers. These are people who beat women in the street, and have just stoned the french reporter they took hostage a few days ago (see my earlier post). No amount of hopeful PC relativism will create an essential goodness to which we can appeal.

I hasten to add, I know few peope who are espousing pacifist views, as I work in New York, not Berkeley. The closest I came was a 60-person student demonstration in my hometown of Princeton, NJ, which was NOT appreciated by the majority of the state. So I'm less concerned than others that we need to expose any movement here. But the limits of pacifism is a fascinating and important subject anyway.

Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at October 11, 2001 08:42 AM | Technorati inbound links