Gandhi was a great man, but we know of him only because he was fortunate enough to use his nonviolent methods against the British. Had he tried them on a more brutal foe, he would have wound up in a forgotten grave. Indeed, Gandhi advised the Jews not to resist the Nazis — perhaps the worst advice in history. Pacifists must choose their opponents with care.
Pacifists narcissistically assume everyone is like them, open to reason. They lack the imagination to see that some people do not use violence as a last resort, when other methods fail, but enjoy violence — revel in it. They cannot imagine that there are people who enjoy killing, and even some who look forward to dying themselves if enough "others" die also.
Many pacifists are zealous in protecting criminals’ rights, but they forget the rights of victims. Some time ago, a black store owner was robbed at gunpoint. He identified the robber, who threatened to kill him. The store owner applied for a gun permit but was denied. Later he used an unregistered gun to shoot the robber, who had been released from jail and tried to carry out his threat. The store owner was given a year in jail. Sympathy was used up on the robber — none was left for the store owner.
The word "peacemaker" has two basic meanings. The first refers to one who tries to calm hostility. The second refers to the Colt .45 revolver, which may be required if the first approach fails. Both types of peacemaker are needed to keep peace in the world.
Pacifists declare, "All life is precious," but what does this mean? I have seen the police photographing a corpse on a sidewalk, and two coyotes tearing apart a cat on a Los Angeles street. Every year coyotes kill many pets and occasionally attack a child, yet hunting or trapping them is illegal. In practice, "all life is precious" means that the life of a murderer is more precious than that of his victim, and the life of a coyote is more precious than that of a cat or dog. Pacifists stand aside in self-satisfied neutrality while predators roam free.
Pacifism is a luxury. Like golf, it can be enjoyed by a fortunate few, while most of us face a harsher reality. Pacifists often live in safe suburbs or gated communities, so they cannot understand why anyone feels the need for self-defense. They rarely work or live in high-crime areas, as do many poor people and minorities. They need not dirty their hands with weapons; gun oil has a pleasant smell with which they are unfamiliar. They depend on the police and military to keep them safe — and then look down with contempt on their protectors, while cutting their funding and hampering them with unrealistic rules.
As has been said, it doesn’t matter how many resolutions the sheep pass in favor of vegetarianism; the only thing that matters is whether the wolves are hungry. The world is full of hungry wolves. Sheep are too stupid to know this, so sheepdogs protect them. But what if the sheep were just smart enough to muzzle the sheepdogs, because the growls disturbed their peaceful slumbers?
From: "The Ugly side of Pacifism",
David C. Stolinsky, 2001
