A Brief Analysis of the Development of Pacifism

Peace is always the basis for the development and prosperity. And people have kept discussing this theme along with their pursuit of prosperity since the ancient time. In the modern century, philosophers and politicians summarized their discussions of peace into the theory of “pacifism” and had a deep exploration of the peace theme under the globalization environment. The term “pacifism” was first brought up by the French peace campaigner Emile Arnaud in 1901. He founded the International League for Peace and Freedom in 1861 and concentrated on political movements that could lead to peace. He advocated for humanism, tolerance, non-violence, and peaceful solutions of establishing consensus to solve conflicts (Imbusch 36).

Pacifism calls for the international peace and the abolition of wars. According to this term, any international disputes should be solved in a peaceful way. Violence, under any circumstance, is prohibited from obtaining political, economic, and social goals. According to historians of pacifism Peter Brock and Thomas Paul Socknat, pacifism is defined as “an unconditional rejection of all forms of warfare” (Brock 527). The concept of pacifism is based on people’s moral standards, insisting that nonviolence is superior and effective in people’s moral concepts. From the 16^th century to the 18^th century, many international affairs, like the abolition of slavery and the French Revolutionary War, aroused people’s thoughts of how to ensure the peace and promote the development. These affairs drew politicians’ and philosophers’ interests in exploring a theory that could lead to the true international peace. Immanuel Kant’s Thoughts on Perpetual Peace was one of the masterpieces during that period to discuss the best form of peace in the global environment and possible ways to achieve that. Meanwhile, due to the widespread influence of Christianity during that time, pacifism was also supported by Christian churches from the religious perspective. A decade after this term was brought up, World War I broke up, drawing people’s attention to peace and pacifism to the highest level. With the involvement of all countries around the world in this war, people started to realize the real meaning of exploring the theory of pacifism and its importance. Peace groups in different countries were active in condemning the war. For example, the British peace activist Stephen Henry Hobhouse went to prison as a way of refusing military service to show his opposition to the war and violence (Hochschild 277). Many peace groups, like the League of Nations Society and the Woman’s Peace Party, condemned this war as a type of governmental coercion of the benefit of capitalist elites. Under the global environment of the rising of capitalism and globalization, all countries were trying to explore the best balance of peaceful coexistence and mutual prosperity. However, the rapid rising of Germany broke the political power balance in Europe and the fast agricultural and industrial development in the US created threats for other countries in the global economic competition. During that period, capitalism was still in the developing period, and people still held doubts about this system. Also, with the fast economic and political developments, the global power distribution kept changing, and the balance was changed again and again. Many countries resisted the influence of globalization by setting the trade barrier and refused the cooperation. However, for more interests and power, wars had been taken by countries like Germany to force the cooperation and obedience of other countries. Thus, it was essential to come up with the best solution to achieving economic developments and political power balances among different countries. If people knew how to establish effective economic developments and virtuous political cooperation, no country would turn to violence and wars as the way of solving the global conflicts. Nazism would never have the chance to survive and create conflicts.

In the 1920s after the World War I, people realized the damage of war to the development with the immense loss of life during the war. Pacifism developed at a rapid sped with more and more new organizations, movements, and works. Organizations like the War Resister’s International and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom were formed to call for the international peace and reminded people of the painful loss brought by the war and violence. Poignant images from the World War I in many movies had expressed people’s opposition to wars. The most typical one was that a line of English soldiers blinded by poison gas, shuffling toward a dressing situation (Sontag 61). Also, peace and war started to be a popular theme in novels and poems during that period, like Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington. People turned economic sanctions and multilateral negotiations as the way to solve international disputes, instead of violence and battles that they used in the colonist period. The theory of pacifism was important to those politicians who would decide what economic and political strategies the country should take to guarantee the steady development and maintain the balance with other countries. During the exploration of capitalism and globalization, conflicts and inequality were unavoidable. Any country wanted to strive for more interests and benefits in the global cooperation. If there was no effective theory that could guide people to develop under the peaceful global environment, wars and violence would happen because they were the most direct and fastest ways to solve a dispute. However, it was not a long-term and effective solution. Lessons from the World War I had awakened people that wars and violence would only increase conflicts and caused a great loss for every party. Pacifism was the theory that all countries should insist for the long-term development and perpetual prosperity.

In the film The Battle of Algiers, the theme of peace is once again mentioned and draws the public’s attention by the director Gillo Pontecorvo. This film is about how people in Algeria fight against their French colonists and strive for freedom and independence. By a lot of violent scenes and killings, this film reminds people of the importance of peaceful coexistence. The colonization, along with wars, is not the solution of mutual benefits and healthy developments. France has to pay its price in the colonization of Algeria and shows its failure in the suppress of revolutionists. Finally, the France has to set its determination to end the colonization and the war. This film shows that wars and colonization will only bring more loss and pain in the capitalism and globalization. Also, justice and humanity also sacrificed in people’s prejudices. As Frantz Fanon argues, the most liberal-minded French reporters use ambiguous epithets to portray the struggle and objectivity is always directed against those revolutionists (Fanon 37).

According to Arendt’s concepts, fear, apathy, and violence will make a vicious cycle due to people’s psychological activities and ethical needs. Violence produces fear and denial. Denial leads to apathy. And apathy, in turn, produces violence. This phenomenon was typical during the World War I and World War II. After the WWI, 35 million people became homeless and vulnerable. People held fears towards wars and violence. To escape this fear, many people turned to apathy, and there followed a period of hedonism. Instead of analyzing lessons from the WWI, people became numb to the loss and pursued wealth and fame blindly. The end of WWI didn’t bring an improvement in the global relationship among different countries. Instead, it increased conflicts and made the global relationships tenser. When people’s numbness and apathy produced inescapable problems, the WWII broke up. In order to achieve the real peace, this vicious circle must be cut off, and people’s awareness of the global violence must be improved. This concept tried to analyze the influence of violence and the reason for this violence. The period of these two world wars witnessed rapid economic and political developments. And these rapid developments blinded people to strive for the ultimate interests in the globalization, regardless of the long-term co-existence. However, the World War I scared people of the loss and damage violence could bring and people got lost in their ethical and moral standards. When people chose to avoid this fear, they actually led to people’s inability to reach a consensus on the peaceful development and cooperation. Different from the previous colonization or civil wars, WWI was the first war with the global scale, and it forced people to deal with the co-development in the globalization and the best way to solve global disputes.

In sum, the theme of peace should always be the principle when people deal with global disputes and conflicts. The theory of pacifism is brought up and developed with philosophers’ and politicians’ constant explorations of peace. The World War I is the first big test for this theory and contributes to the fast development of this theory. Arendt gives a detailed analysis of the relationship between fear, apathy, and violence, which explains the mutual influence between the two world wars. To avoid wars and violence, people must insist on the beneficial economic development and virtuous political cooperation in the globalization environment.