Pacifism

Pacifism is opposition to war. Pacifism covers a spectrum of views ranging from a preference to use non-military means for resolving disputes through to absolute opposition to the use of violence, or even force, in any circumstance.

Criticisms/paradoxes of Pacifism

Like all philosophies, pacificism, when taken to an extreme, will be found to be absurd by the majority of people in a population. An extreme form of pacifism is the total rejection of all violent means. The ultimate result of this extreme pacifism is the complete elimination of it - all the pacifists are killed by those of a different persuasion.

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If a people are being suppressed violently and brutally by an organization (say led by a dictator) the extreme pacifist view from the inside would be to not oppose the dictator violently, and from the outside would be not to support military opposition to the dictator. However, this leads to a potential paradox. While it is true that military opposition to the dictator would result in violence, much violence is already being done by the dictator. Could a short bout of violence (to depose the dictator) shorten the long bout of violence (due to the dictator) ? Is a pacifist supposed to worry about that ?

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