Distress signals: a pacifist’s approach to war

Is pacifism always an option?

Image by Annette Jones

Games Without Frontiers

I remember a cartoon that explained the First World War as a pub brawl. Two punters started blowing fists for some trivial misunderstanding, and then everyone else joined in for fear of missing out or the prospect of being in charge of the drinks when the fight was over.

War Without Tears

It was a ridiculous way to convey the ridiculousness of a conflict driven by ambitious men that claimed the lives of so many others just because they could. As history would have it, everyone was so keen on avoiding any further brawling that they were reluctant to confront the new bully who proudly walked in and shamelessly started drinking everyone else’s drinks twenty years later. That war claimed many more million lives, and we will never know if at least some could have been spared had the winners acted sooner.

My First Song Was About War

I am a pacifist. I have always been. The idea of dying in the name of anything appals me. I find nationalism abhorrent. I find warmongering repulsive. Indeed, the first song I ever wrote was about wars and how we should end them: I must have been 12. I knew nothing about them, only that they brought about destruction and suffering, only that…