pacifists embrace evil, why else would they not fight against it
I see this kind of comment come up quite often when looking at philosophical quotes and such, I don't get it at all. Pacifism is not passivism. Gandhi was a pacifist, but he obviously fought ferociously against evil.
Pacifism is dying even when you don't have to.
That's contra survival and not good.
Not initiating force <> Not concluding it when used against you. Even in a totally gratuitous and out of proportion way.
In a just society, if some mugger whips a gun out on me in my own store, and have every right to shoot him dead and stick his head on a pole out front until the condition of the head could endanger my customers with disease.
Not saying that I'd do something as barbaric as that, but I'd have every right to.
Pacifism is for masochists.
I absolutely disagree. It's strange, usually libertarian leaning indivuals see fallacies like "one of us must die." The fact I find it unethical to use force, even in response to a prior force, is not even the slightest admission that I would rather die.
Ok pizzly, lets role play. I have a chainsaw and I just busted down your door and am coming at you reving it up.....................you have a loaded shotgun 2 ft from your reach leaning against the fireplace.
Your move.
You make many assumptions, but if we assumeI have no way to run, no way to pay, and no way to beg, and that this shotgun has lethal rounds, I would chose not to shoot. I'm not saying my life has less value, I obviously feel my life is of greater value, but that is not a justification for killing a person.