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Gary Lawrence Murphy has a thoughtful

Joho the Blog — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 17:47:06 -0400

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Gary Lawrence Murphy has a thoughtful and funny response to my piece (comments here) on why I'm not a pacifist any more. An excerpt: ...Dr. Who, on detonating a bomb in an evil tyrant's lair, was asked by his companions why he'd left his pacifism in th......

Gary Lawrence Murphy has a thoughtful

Joho the Blog — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 16:59:42 -0400

Trackback from Joho the Blog:

Gary Lawrence Murphy has a thoughtful and funny response to my piece (comments here) on why I'm not a pacifist any more. An excerpt: ...Dr. Who, on detonating a bomb in an evil tyrant's lair, was asked by his companions why he'd left his pacifism in th......

JOHO the Barbarian

mrG — Thu, 17 Jun 2004 14:30:33 -0400

David Weinberger has had a change of heart, and just in time for the elections, would like to renounce his pacifism ...

Something else broke in me during those years of transition. I went from believing that one is moral by adhering to principles, to believing that principled action can be morally wrong even when the principle is good. If there are times when dying for a principle is the right thing to do, it's not for the sake of the principle but because of the effects a principled death can have.

And, presumably, killing too, but that's not the point, the point is one of soundbytes and slogans, of not understanding, but of simplification ...

In fact, oddly, my pacifism began in the third grade with the recognition of complexity ... So, I am no longer a pacifist if that means I pledge never to use violence no matter what the situation ... But I would like to reclaim the term: I am a pacifist because I want us to go to extremes to avoid using violence. Why? Because violence is the ultimate over-simplification.

But that in itself is a simplification, isn't it? As Matisse said, "You have to look at something a long time to know what Sign it is" and even in seemingly clear questions of right vs wrong, we have trouble ...