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Orwell on pacifists Submitted by Julian Pistorius on Mon, 2008-07-21 17:02.
This from the man who wrote 1984: "The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States ..." (From Orwell's Notes on Nationalism in May 1945) Take that, pacifists. Interesting to see that even back then anti-American and anti-western sentiment was rife. I found the above quote in this old Slate article from 2004 by Christopher Hitchens: Unfairenheit 9/11, The lies of Michael Moore.
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This is one of those replies...
in which you find yourself saying the obvious, but: yes, there are innocent people! There are people who won't contribute to somebody else's idea of what's needed in the world, and who shouldn't be blamed for having caused, by their passivity, that problem.
And yes, words have meaning, Greg-stir! A "pro-Fascist" approves of the Fascist regime. Someone who indirectly helps the Fascists may despise the Fascist regime, but are not willing to risk their life to defeat it, refusing to fight against it, and thus "helping" it. (Though, in fact, they are asserting and defending their freedom, which always works against Fascism!) And persons who help Fascists may do so for reasons other than being politically pro-Fascist, perhaps they see a profit in it... I know these distinctions aren't beyond you, Greg-stir.
There is a lot of protest about saying what one means, and meaning what one says, about precision and accuracy and philosophical integrity here lately. Ugly trend.
--Mindy
- if you're not actively
- if you're not actively helping the whole of humanity to evolve you're no better than a murder
- if you're not a muslim you're denying the word of our great prophet and must be exterminated according to his written word
- if you don't build bigger bombs for me to use you actively invite others to kill you with theirs
...
I do prefer to pick my own topics I want to take responsability for
and scare-mongering be damned (in any religious or non-religious way you prefer)
VSD
?
..helped the Fascists,
..pro-Fascist,
..indirectly help the Fascists.
Not much distinction between all three surely? Blackmailing the innocents - you mean the silent majority who allow atrocities?
"...urge responsibility on innocent people."
We couldn't have that, could we? People taking responsibility? Spare the thought!
Orwell was wrong
"Pacifists" in your example, may have in fact helped the Fascists, but, ethical or not, their pacifism doesn't thereby qualify them as "pro-Fascist." A true pacifist would equally, indirectly help the Fascists. And where have we heard that, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem" blackmail before?
This kind of argument is used extensively to indict, blame, and urge responsibility on innocent people.
Orwell also had this to say
Orwell also had this to say about paficism:
'Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help out that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, 'he that is not with me is against me.'
http://fawstin.blogspot.com/