Is pacifism possible, or will those who lie down their weapons fall under the power of those which kept theirs?

Was the World saved from the 3rd WW through “mutual assured destruction”, or would it have been a more peaceful period without that?

Pacifism has been proven to work—under certain circumstances. Gandhi and MLK, Jr. both used it well to achieve their goals. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that both were assassinated.

On the other hand, it’s hard to envision a scenario that could have brought down Hitler and his allies without force. And I really have no idea how you deal with people who have already decided they are going to die for their own violent cause. I don’t know that there is anything you can do to stop them, short of helping them meet their end before they are able to destroy others.

Is pacifism possible, or will those who lie down their weapons fall under the power of those which kept theirs?

Generally speaking, the latter, which is why I will NEVER under any circumstances lay down mine.

Pacifism has been proven to work—under certain circumstances. Gandhi and MLK, Jr. both used it well to achieve their goals. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that both were assassinated.

Only if the object of the protest movement cares about appearances.

Put it another way, if MLK or Ghandi had tried doing their thing in China or Myanmar, they would have been “Disappeared” and that would have been the end of it.

If by Pacifism do you mean the entire world population will give up all weapons, and strive for peace?  No, never, ever gonna happen.

However, I do thing that individual can live as a pacifist in a society like the US.

Alexander80 - 07 August 2012 09:11 AM

Was the World saved from the 3rd WW through “mutual assured destruction”, or would it have been a more peaceful period without that?

I think mutually assured destruction did prevent nukes from being used again, although the so called “proxy wars” of that period would have still taken place IMO.