Dan Koenig writes:
> Martin, your numerous contributions leave me the impression of a
> principled and well intentioned person who wants the right thing to
> happen.  However, I think that you give up too easily on pacifism.
> Think of the progress that resulted from Ghandi, Mandela, and masses
> of people involved in anti-slavery movements, labour movements,
> women's movements, environmental movements, peace movements, and so
> many more.  There will not be a utopia in this plane of existence,
> but change and improvements do occur, often quite improbably so.
> History, including current history, is full of examples of this.  It
> may seem improbable, but then again people of our generation also
> didn't believe that the Iron Curtain would be voluntarily removed,
> did they?  Maybe we limit ourselves too much by imagining that
> something can't be done instead of commiting ourselves to making it
> happen.

I have no argument with that.  I mean that it sets up a "battle line"
between the pacifist and the system, and the analogy I will use is the
man who builds a sea wall to protect his house from the pounding
waves.  He measures success by the fact that his house continues to
stand, but he must forever expend resources to keep it that way,
because the system, in this case the ocean, has not changed.  It is
natural for the waves to pound against his sea wall.  It will never
relent because the nature of that system is for the tide to rise and
fall.  His house will continue to stand as long as he expends the
necessary resources, unless a hurican comes through and knocks it
down, which is also in the structure of the system.

If the man could change the structure of the ocean, he wouldn't have
to waste resources fighting it (don't raise the objection of tampering
with nature; I don't mean the analogy to go that far).  In the present
case, we have a system in operation, analyzed at length by Chomsky and
others.  I am thankful that there are pacifists and non-violent
movements.  I don't mean to minimize their achievements, not do I mean
to divert resources away from them.  But they don't change the systems
they oppose.  They move the battle lines, leaving the systems they
oppose in place.

martin

Martin Smith                    Email: [log in to unmask]
P.O. Box 1034 Bekkajordet       Tel. : +47 330 35700
N-3194 HORTEN, Norway           Fax. : +47 330 35701