From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Mar 23 2003 - 10:37:58 MST
--- "Camp, Christopher" <CCamp@omm.com> wrote:
>
> Mike said:
> While my sigfile specifically singles out pacifists, I would say that
> anybody who isn't taking personal action to fight tyranny is aiding
> and
> abetting it by doing nothing. Pacifism is more than just an opinion
> or
> an attitude, it is also a lack of action. In a spiritual sense, it is
> a
> sin of omission.
>
> ====Mike, from your statements above and below, I feel that your mind
> is a sin of omission. Seriously you need to give me some more
> evidence before I can side with you on this one. From my view
> you've made a few statements about pacifism that don't match my own
> definition or what I would take as the standard definition. If you
> are creating a specialized definition then that should be noted
> with some sort of asterisk in your "sigfile" and all
> other places where you make reference to the concept.
I am making no specialized definition. If you break the word down, it
signifies someone who is for peace. What sort of peace? There are many
kinds. There is the peace found in a prison camp, the peaceful streets
of a fascist society, and the peace found in being executed by a
oppressive government.
There is also the peace found in sitting on ones couch and doing
nothing when there is injustice in the world. There is the peace found
in isolating one's society from the rest of the world. There is the
peace of mind found in telling oneself, "I've got my freedom, what do I
care if millions of people around the world have none?" There is the
peace of mind found in refusing to believe that a fascist state
posesses weapons of mass destruction, in refusing to believe that
material evidence to support the opposition position is valid, or is
'enough' to demand the pacifist take action against it. These sorts of
pacifism are specifically sins of omission.
There is also the pacifism of those who actively work against the
efforts of free people to fight against opressive regimes. Sean Penn,
for example, is such a pacifist. Jane Fonda is another. Chamberlain was
another, as was Charles Lindberg. Joseph Kennedy was another.
The 'pacifists' who demonstrate against US and UK actions here in the
US, but do not protest in Iraq against Ba'ath Party actions on their
own people are similar sorts of pacifists, and it is these sorts that
Orwell was specifically speaking of, and which I am referring to in my
sigfile. Their actions are sins of commission. They value peace more
than liberty, the lives of fascists more than those of oppressed
civilians, and they are the racist ones in thinking that freedom for
other ethnic groups is not worth fighting for.
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
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