Pacifism

The term pacifism was created by the French jurist and writer Émile Arnaud (article: "Code de la Paix", 1901 in a Belgian newspaper; brochure: "Code International Public - Code de la Paix", Congrès universel de la Paix, Ligue Internationale de la Paix et de la Liberté, Berne, 1912, and Institut International de la Paix, Paris, 1913). In his script, Arnaud repudiated daydream, charitable, religious and politological/ideological (namely anarchist, socialist and liberalist) roundabouts on the needs of neighborliness (of people and of peoples). The humanistic idea of pacifism is originally emotional, non-political, basing on the insight that one's self-esteem requires essentially to be mirrored neighbourly, which again requires both to show one's own neighborliness and to open up one's own mind about the others' basic needs. In the case of conflicting interests, the will has to be kept under the moral law (I. Kant), which means that searching for reasoning, nonviolent conflict resolutions is of highest priority. Attributing pacifism as passive is questionable, and the attribute passive needs clarification. For example, blocking sit-downs on the driveways of a military facility, civil disobedience on grounds of conscience, non-consumption of rabble-rousing media - these are actions, and they are not passive at all. Nevertheless, I'll keep on calling these forms of resistance passive resistance just to differentiate them terminologically from life-threatening sabotages, assassinations and riots. Utopie et réalité d’une culture de la paix - that's a very difficult matter, but also a matter of highest importance. And I can't see another way to cultivate it but by pacifism.