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PACIFISM & PAIN

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PACIFISM

see "WAR & PEACE" for related links

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Then Timur returned to Khorasan with a fixed
purpose of taking revenge on [the city of] Seistan
whose inhabitants went out to him asking for peace
and agreement, which he granted them on condition
that they should hand over their arms to him, of
which they produced the whole equipment which
they had, hoping in this way to escape from their
extremity; and he put them on oath and ordered
them to swear plainly that no further weapons were
left in the city.

And as soon as they had given this guarantee, he
drew the sword against them and billeted upon
them all the armies of death. Then he laid the city
waste, leaving in it not a tree or a wall and destroyed
it utterly, no mark or trace remaining.

--Ahmed Ibn Arabshah (1388-1450)
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] p. 256

-

I ain't got no quarrel with the Viet Cong.
(Refusing to be drafted to fight in Vietnam.)
--Muhammad Ali (Cassius Marcellus Clay) (1942— )
American heavyweight boxer.
At a press conference in Miami, Florida [February 1966].

Pale Ebenezer thought it wrong to fight,
But Roaring Bill (who killed him) thought it right.
--Hilaire Belloc (1870—1953)
British poet, essayist, historian, and novelist.
"The Pacifist" [1938]

Resist not evil: but whoever shall smite thee
on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
--Bible
"Matthew" 5:39

I fear War more than Fascism.
--Vera Brittain (1893—1970)
English writer.
(Brittain campaigned against British rearmament.
which finally began in 1935.)

-

I didn't raise my son to be a soldier
I raised him up to be my pride and joy
Why should he put a musket to his shoulder
To kill another mother's darling boy
Why should he fight in someone else's quarrels
It's time to throw the sword and gun away
There would be no war today
If the nations all would say
No I didn't raise my son to be a soldier

I didn't raise my son to be a soldier
To go fighting in some far-off foreign land
He may get killed before he's any older
For a cause that he will never understand
Why should he fight another rich man's battle
While they stay at home and while their time away
Let those with most to lose
Fight each other if they choose
For I didn't raise my son to be a soldier

I didn't raise my son to be a soldier
To go fighting heathens round the Horn
If God required to prove that boys are bolder
They'd have uniforms and guns when they were born
Why should we have wars about religion
When Jesus came to teach us not to kill
Do Zulus and Hindoos
Not have the right to choose
For I didn't raise my son to be a soldier

I didn't raise my son to be a soldier
I raised him up to be a gentleman
To find a sweet young girl and love and hold her
Bring me some grandchildren when they can
Why can't we decide that the Empire
Is just as large as it requires to be
And I'd rather lose it all
Than to see my laddie fall
For I didn't raise my son to be a soldier

--Alfred Bryan, 'I Didn’t Raise My Son to Be a Soldier’
Sung by Cecilia John (1877-1955) in Australian Women’s Peace Army
anti-war demostrations until banned by the Australian Government
under the Australian War Precautions Act of 1915.

-

[A pacifist is] the last and least excusable on
the list of the enemies of society.
--G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (1874—1936)
English essayist, novelist, and poet.

For the best part of twenty years the youth of Britain and America have
been taught that war was evil, which is true, and that it would never
come again, which has been proved false. For the best part of twenty
years, the youth of Germany, of Japan and Italy, have been taught that
aggressive war is the noblest duty of the citizen and that it should be
begun as soon as the necessary weapons and organization have been
made. We have performed the duties and tasks of peace. They have
plotted and planned for war. This naturally has placed us, in Britain,
and now places you in the United States at a disadvantage which only
time, courage and untiring exertion can correct.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].
Speech to the United States Congress [26 December 1941].

[W]hen Hitler overran the Netherlands and forced
the surrender of France, Congress passed a law
conscripting young men for a year's training. When,
in August 1941, this draft act was about to expire,
Roosevelt wanted it renewed. The isolationists
raised a storm against him, partly from disillusion
with the last American effort to "save the world
for democracy"; partly from the conviction that
to go into Europe again would, as one Senator
put it, "plow under every fourth American boy";
partly from a deep resentment at Roosevelt's
secret order to the Navy to convoy Allied
merchantmen. The United States was, in truth,
very nearly a secret belligerent. The Germans
knew it, and so did the Congress. In August 1941
the House Armed Services Committee met to
hold hearings on extending the draft and to bring
the question of the war-making power to a
showdown. Things were going very badly for the
Administration till at last it brought up its big
gun: the Army Chief of Staff, General George
Catlett Marshall, a flinty lifetime soldier as
impressive for his restraint under a bombardment
of rhetoric as he was for the disheartening
statistics he quoted. (It was Marshall who publicly
equated the American army with the standing army
of Sweden.) It is probable that, without him,
the United States would have found itself four
months later with nothing but its small volunteer
army. For, when the renewal act went to the
floor of the House, it was passed by 203 to 202.
--Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (1908—2004)
British-born American broadcater and journalist.
_America_ [1973]

A pacifism which can see the cruelties only of occasional
military warfare and is blind to the continuous cruelties of
our social system is worthless.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948)
Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic
movement against British rule.

That this House will in no circumstances
fight for its King and Country.
--D.M. Graham (1911—1999)
Oxford pacifist.
(Motto worded by Graham for a debate at the Oxford Union
[9 February 1933]; passed by 275 votes to 153 - ODTQ)

A truly pacifist people would soon
disappear from history.
--Gustave Le Bon (1841—1931)
French social psychologist best known for his study
of the psychological characteristics of crowds.

He had grown up in a country run by politicians who sent the
pilots to man the bombers to kill the babies to make the world
safer for children to grow up in.
--Ursula K. Le Guin (1929— )
American writer.
_The Lathe of Heaven_ [1971]

A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by
his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them
for the injury.
--John Stuart Mill (1806—1873)
English philosopher and social reformer.

For forty-some years the ban-the-bomb bums, unilateral disarmament
goonies, nuclear-freeze sleaze, peace creeps, and no-nukes kooks
bragged about the horrors of atomic war. There was no end to their
end of the world. They painstakingly detailed Armageddon, polished
the Apocalypse, rubbed and loved a radioactive holocaust that made
the Jonathan Edwards sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"
sound like a vacation postcard from Cozumel. "Better red than dead!"
they shrieked. They could have gone to Stalin's Russia, Mao's China,
or Pol Pot's Cambodia and been both.
--P.J. O'Rourke (1947— )
American political satirist.
_The CEO of the Sofa_ [2001]

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.'
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
(Of Britain's pacifists in 1942.)


The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects
or are simply humanitarians who object to the taking of life and
prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there
is a minority of intellectual pacifists whose real though unadmitted
motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration
of totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying
that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at
the writings of 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. Moreover they
do not as a rule condemn violence as such, but only violence used
in defense of western countries.

[...] All in all it is difficult not to feel that pacifism, as it appears among
a section of the intelligentsia, is secretly inspired by an admiration for
power and successful cruelty. The mistake was made of pinning this
emotion to Hitler, but it could easily be retransfered.

--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
"Notes on Nationalism" [May 1945]

-

Peace is generally good in itself, but it is never the highest good
unless it comes as the handmaid of righteousness; and it becomes
a very evil thing if it serves merely as a mask for cowardice and sloth,
or as an instrument to further the ends of despotism or anarchy. We
despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in
private or public life, but we despise no less the coward and the
voluptuary. No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather
than submit to infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer
wrong. No nation deserves to exist if it permits itself to lose the
stern and virile virtues; and this without regard to whether the
loss is due to the growth of a heartless and all-absorbing
commercialism, to prolonged indulgence in luxury and soft,
effortless ease, or to the deification of a warped and twisted
sentimentality.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech [1910]

The pacifist thinks that the alternative to war is
peace; it is not. Sometimes the alternative is
oppression. Sometimes certain God-given rights and
liberties can be preserved only by resistance to that
which would destroy them. And to defend certain
basic God-given rights and liberties is not immoral
but righteous.
--Fulton John Sheen (1895—1979)
Roman Catholic bishop; the first popular
preacher to appear on television.
_A Declaration Of Dependance_ [1941]

I renounce war and never again will I support or
sanction another.
--Rev. Dick Sheppard,
pacifist and canon of St Paul's Cathedral, London,
in a [16 October 1934] letter to the _Manchester
Guardian_ which invited readers to send a postcard
with the identical message - 100,000 Britons did so.

For God's sake, do not drag me into another war! ..... I am sorry for
the Spaniards — I am sorry for the Greeks - I deplore the fate of the
Jews; the people of the Sandwich Islands are groaning under the
most detestable tyranny; Baghdad is oppressed — I do not like the
present state of the Delta — Tibet is not comfortable. Am I to fight
for all these people? Am I to be champion of the Decalogue and to
be eternally raising fleets and armies to make all men good and
happy? We have just done saving Europe, and I am afraid the
consequence will be that we shall cut each other's throats. No
war, dear Lady Grey! no eloquence; but apathy, selfishness,
common sense, arithmetic!
--Sydney Smith (1771—1845)
English clergyman and essayist,
in 1802 cofounded "The Edinburgh Review."
Letter to Lady Grey.

-

(BATTERED SOUL comes in, supported by
two angels)

GOD: In my name, what happened to you? Did
you run into a comet on your way up?

BATTERED SOUL: No, Lord. I'm a pacifist.

GOD: A what?

BATTERED SOUL: A pacifist. I believe in Jesus
and peace.

GOD: So you are a Christian?

BATTERED SOUL: O, no. I really do believe in
peace.

--C. E. S. Wood, "A Pacifist Enters Heaven--In
Bits," from _Heavenly Discourse_ [1927]

-

The high contracting parties solemnly declare
in the names of their respective peoples that
they condemn recourse to war for the solution
of international controversies, and renounce it
as an instrument of national policy in their
relations with one another.
--Kellogg-Briand Pact, Article 1, signed
in Paris [27 August 1928]. The Pact had
64 signatures: Japan, Germany, Italy, and
the USSR, to name four.

----

PACIFISM (TOPICAL)

Peace is what those (true pacifists) are struggling for and there
can be no nobler goal than this, but may I ask one questions here?

Where do you live!? A stupid and irrelevant question? I don't think
so. Which peace are you seeking? Yours or that of the world, and
which order you are trying to maintain? That of your countries or of
the whole world? Do you really think that it's such a wonderful and
peaceful world that no one should be allowed to mess with? [...]

Just think again about all the pain and sufferings in this world and
this time imagine yourself picking the bones of your sons, daughters
or brothers from a mass grave after loosing their track in a dark
night 20 or 30 years ago and knowing that they didn't even die
peacefully, NO, they were tortured, raped and treated like animals
and forced to beg for mercy to have it as a bullet in the head. This
happened, and not only in Iraq and is still happening elsewhere in
this ‘wonderful' world. [...]

I hope you have a stronger heart as you explain to those people that
you stood against their salvation and allowed their misery to
continue because you think your politicians lied to you about the
reasons for this war. Try to tell them that this was the doing
of America not Saddam and that's why you stood against her when she
tried to remove him and give them freedom AND peace, the peace of
mind and heart!!

Again my stupid question: where do you live? As we, who support this
war against dictatorship and terrorism, live in this world, this
ugly world we are trying to change as persistently as you try to
keep it as it is with the same strength and persistence. So… where
do you live?

--"Ali"

-

I find it shameful that in obedience to the stupid, vile, dishonest,
and for them extremely advantageous fashion of Political Correctness
the usual opportunists--or better the usual parasites--exploit
the word Peace. That in the name of the word Peace, by now
more debauched than the words Love and Humanity, they absolve
one side alone of its hate and bestiality. That in the name of a
pacifism (read conformism) delegated to the singing crickets and
buffoons who used to lick Pol Pot's feet they incite people who
are confused or ingenuous or intimidated. Trick them, corrupt
them, carry them back a half century to the time of the yellow
star on the coat. These charlatans who care about the
Palestinans as much as I care about the charlatans. That
is not at all.
--Oriana Fallaci (1929—2006)
Italian journalist and author.

-

The artists, musicians, and entertainers have also railed against
the war. In the therapeutic mindset, the refinement and talent
of a Sean Penn, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Bruce Springsteen,
or John Fogerty earn respect when they weigh in on matters
of state policy.

But in the tragic view, they can be little more than puppets of
inspiration. Their natural gifts are not necessarily enriched by
real education or learning. Indeed, they are just as likely to be
high-school or college dropouts and near illiterates, albeit with
good memories, voices, and looks. The present antics of these
influential millionaire entertainers should remind us why Plato
banished them — worried that we might confuse the inspired
creative frenzies of the artisans with some sort of empirical
knowledge. But you can no more sing, or write, or act al
Qaeda away than the equally sensitive novelists and
intellectuals of the 1930s or 1940s could rehabilitate Stalin.

--Victor Davis Hanson (1953— )
American military historian and senior
fellow at the Hoover Institution.
"The Therapeutic Choice"

-

Confronted with such a foe — which gladly murders
Algerians and Egyptians and Palestinians if they
have any doubts about the true faith, or if they
happen to be standing in the wrong place at the
wrong time, or if they happen to be female — exactly
what role does a "peace movement" have to play? A
year or so ago, the "peace movement" was saying that
Afghanistan could not even be approached without
risking the undying enmity of the Muslim world; that
the Taliban could not be bombed during Ramadan; that
a humanitarian disaster would occur if the Islamic
ultra- fanatics were confronted in their own lairs.
Now we have an imperfect but recovering Afghanistan,
with its population increased by almost two million
returned refugees. Have you ever seen or heard any
of those smart-ass critics and cynics make a self-
criticism? Or recant?
--Christopher Hitchens (1949— )
British journalist, author, and literary critic.
"Chew on This"




PAIN

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see "HEALTH" for related links
see "HURTING (SOMEONE)" for related links
see "UNHAPPINESS" for related links


PAIN, n. An uncomfortable frame of mind that may have a
physical basis in something that is being done to the body,
or may be purely mental, caused by the good fortune of
another.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906]
{Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_}.

Don't hold to anger, hurt or pain. They steal your
energy and keep you from love.
--Leo [Felice Leonardo] Buscaglia (1925—1998)
American professor and author of inspirational books.

Courage takes many forms. There is physical courage,
there is moral courage. Then there is a still higher type
of courage--the courage to brave pain, to live with it, to
never let others know of it and to still find joy in life; to
wake up in the morning with an enthusiasm for the
day ahead.
--Howard Cosell (1918—1995)
American sports journalist and author.
_Like It Is_ [1974]

^

Alexander Procofieff De Serversky (1894—1974)
Russian-born American aviator and aeronautical
engineer.

De Serversky was visiting a fellow aviator in the hospital.
The young man had just had his leg amputated; de
Serversky, who had been walking on an artificial
limb for some time, tried to cheer him up. 'The loss
of a leg is not so great a calamity,' he said. 'Look
at me, I dance, I fly, I drive a car, I go everywhere.
And another thing: if you get hit on a wooden leg
it doesn't hurt a bit! Try it!' The patient raised his
walking-stick and brought it down on de Serversky's
leg with considerable force. 'You see,' said de
Serversky cheerfully. 'If you hit an ordinary man
like that, he'd be in bed for five days.' With these
words he took leave of the young man and limped
out into the corridor, where he collapsed in
excruciating pain. The aviator had struck him on
his good leg.

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

If I can stop one Heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in vain.
--Emily Dickinson (1830—1886)
American poet.
"Poems, First Series" [1890]

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence
and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have
great sadness on earth.
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821—1881),
Russian novelist, journalist, and short story writer.
_Crime and Punishment_ [1866], ch. V, pt. III

Listen, you son of a bitch, life isn't all a godamn
football game! You won't always get the girl!
Life is rejection and pain and loss.
--Frederick Exley (1929—1992)
Amerian author.
_A Fan's Notes_ [1968]

If I were to choose between pain and
nothing, I would always choose pain.
--William Faulkner (1897—1962)
American novelist.
_The Wild Palms_ [1939]

^

Bret Harte (1836-1902)
American writer.

Bret Harte once attended a lecture in Richmond, Virginia,
suffering from a miserable headache. Afterward, to clear
his head, he took a walk with a Richmond friend, who
expatiated on the city's wholesome air and location,
adding proudly that its mortality statistics reflected
only one death per day. Harte, still in agony with his
headache, exclaimed, 'Heavens, let's hope today's
candidate is already dead.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight
into much and power over nothing.
--Herodotus (484—c.425 BC)
Greek author of the first great narrative
history produced in the ancient world.

I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is
unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of
much praise.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
In a letter to Francis Hopkinson [13 March 1789].

It's odd that you can get so anesthetized by your own pain
or your own problem that you don't quite fully share the hell
of someone close to you.
--Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson (1912—2007)
First Lady of the U.S. [1963—1969].
_A White House Diary_ [1970]

The trick is not how much pain you feel--but how much joy you
feel. Any idiot can feel pain. Life is full of excuses to feel pain,
excuses not to live, excuses, excuses, excuses.
--Erica Jong (1942— )
American novelist.
_How To Save Your Own Life_ [1977]

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent
him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and
appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the
words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses!
How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths
of affliction!
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].
In an address to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society,
Milwaukee [30 September 1859].

It is a curious phenomenon of the human mind...that past
pain is painless in recall, but pleasure past and lost is
excruciating to remember.
--Judith Merril (1923—1997)
American science fiction author, anthologist, and humanist.
_Daughters of Earth_ [1968]

It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say
that he is one who never inflicts pain.
--John Henry Newman (1801—1890)
English theologian and leader of the
Oxford movement, later Cardinal.
_The Idea of a University_ [1873], Discourse V, pt. VIII

Razors pain you
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
--Dorothy Parker (1893—1967)
American critic and humorist.

Often the most loving thing we can do when a friend
is in pain is to share the pain – to be there even when
we have nothing to offer except our presence and
even when being there is painful to ourselves.
--Scott Peck (1936—2005)
American author.
_The Different Drum_, p.97 [1987]

No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall,
no glory; no cross, no crown.
--William Penn (1644—1718)
Quaker leader and advocate of religious
freedom who oversaw the founding of
the American Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers
and other religious minorities of Europe {E.B.}.
"No Cross, No Crown" [1669 pamphlet]

The pain passes, but the beauty remains.
--Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841—1919)
French painter.
Explaining why he still painted when his hands
were twisted with arthritis.

-----

anodyne AN-uh-dyn, adjective:
1. Serving to relieve pain; soothing.
2. Not likely to offend; bland; innocuous.
noun:
1. A medicine that relieves pain.
2. Anything that calms, comforts, or soothes disturbed feelings.

excruciate (verb) [ek-'skru-shi-eyt]
To inflict severe physical or mental pain
on; torture physically or mentally.

impassible im-PASS-uh-buhl, adjective:
1. Incapable of suffering; not subject to harm or pain.
2. Unfeeling or not showing feeling.

schadenfreude (noun) ['shahd-n-froi-dκ]
Pleasure in the misfortune of others.


end page




| PACIFISM & PAIN | PAINTING - PARENTING | PARIS - PASSPORTS | PAST (THE) - PATRIOTISM | PEACE - PERCENTAGES | PEOPLE | PERCEPTIONS - PERSUASION | PESSIMISM - PHOBIAS | PHONIES - PHYSICS | PI - PLANS | PLACES | PLANTS - POETRY | POETS - POLITICAL PARTIES | POLITICS & POLITICIANS | POLLS - POPES | POPEYE - POTENTIAL | POVERTY | POWER | PRACTICALITY - PRAYER | PREACHERS - PREPARED (BE) | PRESENT (THE) - PRETENDING | PRETENTIONS - PRIVACY | PROBLEMS - PROGRESSIVES | PROGRESS - PROPAGANDA | PROPOSALS - PUBLIC (THE) | PUBLIC OPINION - PURPOSE (ON HAVING A) | QUALITIES - QUIPS | QUIRKS - QUOTATIONS |
| H | I - J | K - L | M | N - O | P - Q |
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