Trovato - Mainstreaming pacifism : conflict, success, and ethics

Mainstreaming Pacifism

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Trovato, Sara.

Title: Mainstreaming pacifism : conflict, success, and ethics / Sara Trovato.

Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, 2015. | Includes bibliographical

references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015037257| ISBN 9780739187180 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN

9780739187197 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Pacifism.

Classification: LCC JZ5548 .T76 2015 | DDC 303.6/6--dc23 LC record available at

http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037257

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To my father, who took the greatest happiness from the achievement of this book.

We deliberate not about ends but about means. For a doctor does not deliberate whether he shall heal, nor an orator whether he shall persuade, nor a statesman whether he shall produce law and order, nor does anyone else deliberate about his end. They assume the end and consider how and by what means it is to be attained.

Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics (III, iii)

Sefforcer de substituer toujours plus dans le monde la non-violence
efficace la violence.

Simone Weil La pesanteur et la grce (101)

Works frequently cited have been identified by the following abbreviations. All translations from the original are from these books, unless otherwise indicated.

Keeping out of the public sphere, being politically passive, and accepting injustice: this is what pacifists are usually thought to do. The topic of this book is larger than the question, which the pacifist is usually asked to answer, how can pacifists defend peace at any price? although this question will be addressed too. At stake, rather, is whether pacifism is able or unable to influence the political sphere and its decision making.

For a long time the only pacifist trace in Western history has been the echo of Christs preaching in the Sermon of the Mount. Indeed, before 1815, not only religious or meek people, but also every European or American pacifist group took inspiration from it. When Karl Marx wrote that religion is the opium of people, the object of his criticism was no more or no less than this pacifist feature in Christianity. To Marx, justice was more important than appeasement.

As I will argue, after a Marxian nineteenth century, a Gandhian twentieth century would come. Mahatma Gandhis political action would prove that peace and a fight for justice are compatible. The challenge for pacifism today is keeping up to Gandhian standards, and not accepting a trade-off between peace and justice. As a result, pacifism may become appealing again.

Regrettably, Gandhis example is often dismissed with a quick label of sanctity, thus giving a lightheartedbut aggrievingevaluation of pacifism, and not taking it seriously. While there have been extraordinary leaders in military and political history, who are looked up to and studied as models, in order for military and political leadership to be more successful in the future, pacifist leadership is not equally imitated. Without a doubt, personal qualities mark leadership, but leadership never goes without a certain craftsmanship, which sediments throughout history and is passed over. If pacifism is to become a realistic and shared option, it cannot insist on peculiarities typical, if not only of a sect (as there have been throughout Western history), of a community. It cannot stay happy with only a set of techniques that belong to pacifism alone. It must endeavor political success in a mainstream political debate and not in a niche.

A collection of means for effective political action is found in this book. As I hope to demonstrate, the political means useful in pacifism are not a collection of fringe ideas, but are already part of the mainstream, having long been available in history and in political thought. Effectuality is the main character of this book. Following Niccol Machiavellis terminology, I call effectuality the successful political means that have been permeating political practice for centuries, without being noticed, without this name and without a coherent treatment (the notion will be defined in section 1.1). Machiavellis writings are a cornerstone in the realm of effectuality, they reveal not only awareness, but mastery, although Machiavellis commentators have left these interpretive paths as yet uncharted. After Machiavelli, other authors would follow suit. In addition to Machiavellis analysis, mainstream political vision of effective means for political action will be presented through the writings of three influential authors central to political thought and practice: Montesquieu, and as I have suggested, Marx and Gandhi.