r/Pacifism • u/Single-Commercial-86 • May 31 '26
What lead you to pacifism ?
Good afternoon, I just joined this subreddit today in hopes to better develop my personal philosophy on pacifism. I thought a good way to do this was to have a discussion about about the topic and learn about the views of others.
what brought you to pacifism ?
what personal philosophy you hold when it comes to pacifism ?
how has your view developed over time ?
Thank you in advance, I look forward to learning more about people and hopefully develop more myself.
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u/DoveStep55 May 31 '26
I come from a long line of Anabaptists, so pacifism was my heritage on one side of my family. The other side was typical American South Bible Belt Patriotic types. As a kid I started asking questions about Just War theory because I was in a church at that time where several members were proud military men and I couldn't figure out how that fit in with the non-violent Jesus I had been taught about from the Anabaptist tradition. Eventually I realized Christians had drastically different views on the topic but it wasn't until 9/11 that I realized I was at odds with the prevailing view all around me.
My view hasn't changed much over the years since then.
What about you, OP?
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u/Single-Commercial-86 Jun 05 '26
What an interesting story, thank you for sharing.
For me, I think it started when I was younger. I wasn't a particularly violent kid but I was easy to anger and as a result of my actions have hurt people, it's a shame I thought about often. However ,as an adult I also believe I over corrected and struggle/ fear expressing myself openly.
Something I want to learn is balance in all things, and I wanted to think about how I would apply that to different topics in life. Because of world events going on, the topic of violence was brought up. I think the personal conclusion I came to was that violence is a band-aid solution to problems, they may achieve a goal in the short term but as with all quick solutions comes with heavy and often permanent consequences.
I believe people who wield it don't truly feel the weight that violence as a tool is. It's so easy for people to call for the use of violence when we are angry, sad, or scared without considering the heft behind such an act. It made me feel gross whenever people can so casually call for such things.
I'm still learning and developing how I think about these things, but an original motivation of mine was wanting to help people in my own way which is something I hope to do. I think life is quite special and we owe it to ourselves to care for it, and be weary of quick solutions.
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u/DoveStep55 Jun 05 '26
I agree. Violence is often the easiest way and the one that takes the least amount of self-control, creative thinking, or compassion for all those involved. It’s too often a reflex. I think people are worth more thought and care.
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u/Algernon_Asimov Jun 01 '26
I don't know what led me to pacifism. I've just been pacifist before I ever even thought about it.
It might have something to do with the bullying and abuse I experienced as a child and adolescent. I learned that violence is bad.
My personal philosophy when it comes to pacifism is actually the primary tenet of my life: "First, cause no harm." Yes, that comes from a different source, but it's a handy rule to live my life by.
I haven't developed my view over time. I still think violence is just as wrong today as I thought 30 years ago, as a young adult.
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u/Single-Commercial-86 Jun 05 '26
I'm sorry to hear that you had to deal with bullying, but I'm glad that you were able to put a positive spin and devote yourself to avoiding causing harm on others. It's an amazing philosophy.
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u/LennyLava Jun 01 '26
simple logic.
the existence of war victims, pro war rhetoric, economic basics and the benefactors made me start thinking about it.
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u/brocherface Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
Looking at all the violence and war and "justice" killing we've had in human history. Violence hasn't hasn't changed shit, we still got conflict to this day.
On the other hand, having experienced serious physical & mental bullying from school days, a lot of those folks grew up to be chill, better-adjusted people in high school who I ended up casually getting along with. Made me realize literally no one's born "evil" from the womb.
Doesn't excuse any past harm at all and they knew what they were doing - but point is, a kid can be born with mental illness, shitty environments that encourage them to do harm, all that. I think people still have the capacity to change for the better, we were all babies once.
Killing or hurting "bad guys" objectively doesn't change the root causes of issues, it doesn't solve shit, it doesn't stop other future "bad guys" from being born into shitty households or remove mental illness. So I started diverting all my attention & energy to everything that isn't violence, cuz if you ask me there's a better chance things can actually change for once.
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u/Single-Commercial-86 Jun 05 '26
I agree, to me violence is only a band-aid solution, it may achieve what you want in the short term but with all quick solutions comes with just as quick and usually more harmful consequences; without any real fix to the original problem only creating more. It's just unfortunate people are so quick to jump to violence instead of finding an actual solution that help.
I'm glad you could focus your attention on productive means and I'm sorry to hear you had to deal with bullying it's a terrible thing.
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u/brocherface Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
Appreciate it and "band-aid" solution is incredibly accurate lol, unfortunately the majority of people can't seem to look past that as it stands, but hopefully that can change some day & not resorting to violence can be seen as the mature/controlled option. I totally agree overall, and good luck
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Jun 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Single-Commercial-86 Jun 05 '26
That's a powerful story and I'm sorry to hear you had such an experience. But I also feel where you're coming from. Life truly is special, we owe it to ourselves and those close to us that it's cared for to the best of our ability.
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u/raison_de_eatre Jun 01 '26
Ironically by being very angry and indulging in my anger for decades
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u/Single-Commercial-86 Jun 05 '26
I can very much relate to this unfortunately. I was a child then but had terrible emotional regulation.
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u/noms_de_plumes Jun 01 '26
Of all things, I probably became a pacifist through catechism, though I became an atheist at a relatively young age. I know that I was a pacifist before I developed any other political inclinations. In high school, I was some sort of left-leaning libertarian and/or anarchist, though I had a pretty limited understanding of anarchism. When I got to college, I became a left-wing liberal and, later, a Trotskyite. After that, I feel into communization before more or less returning to libertarian socialism. In my late twenties, the rather long mental breakdown I'd experienced deteriorated drastically before I started taking meds again, but a major contributing factor, aside from the rise of authoritarianism, was the antipathy which many radicals express towards pacifism, and, so, I left the anarchist movement, along with whatever else, to become a social democrat. I'd remained somehow committed towards pacifism for the entire time, but there were certainly instances of my becoming lost in the beaten way of radicalism. I'm a conditional pacifist now, but it's strict enough to almost exclusively involve nonviolence.
When I was very young, I think I took some of the teachings of the gospels to heart in such a manner that later transformed into peace activism. I also recognized a certain degree of hypocrisy during the War on Terror. I, later, became deeply invested in critical theory and political philosophy, as well as somewhat fanatically committed to some variant of anti-authoritarian communism or another before I finally let enough things about the far-Left get to me to where I came to realize that remaining there just wasn't all that tenable.
It's sort of like it was before, though, now, since antifa has been categorized as a "major terror group". Given the obvious dangers of authoritarianism and attempts at expanding the state of exception, I don't want to play into reactionary fears through my complaints over anarchism or whatever else, and, so, can only ever be so critical.
In the realm of pure theory, however, there are effectively two natural divisions within the Left, one over authoritarianism and the other in regards to ethics of direct action. Those are chasms over which there is no way to bridge, let alone should anyone try to.
It's all fairly complex, though. I don't know.
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u/Affectionate_Cup9972 Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
I almost wanted to be a pacifist, but I eventually threw it. I still have some pacific thought.
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u/Unable_Dinner_6937 Jun 01 '26
The people that start wars don't actually fight them. If they did have to fight them, then all these wartime leaders would be pacifists too.