John Stuart Mill on War

[leeford]

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill

[johntwayne]

Thank you for sharing an apt quote.

[Volkmar]

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill

If the issue is "decayed and degraded state of moral(ity)" and that there is "nothing which is more important than his own personal safety" then JSM has a good point.

However, many pacifist are persons of outstanding integrity who are willing to suffer for what they are convicted is the right thing to do (or not do).  I suspect that few of us who were raised in the CofC remember that there were a significant number of our brothers (especially of the David Lipscomb wing of the movement) who refused to "serve" in WWI...not because they were morally degraded or concerned about their personal safety, but because they genuinely took Jesus serious about what He had to say about violence and self-sacrifice.  Their refusal to "serve" was not looked upon kindly by our government, and by  many Christians in their time and culture...more than a few spent time in prison for their faith.



V

[Mere Nick]

My granddad went into WW1 as a CO, though he was a Methodist.  Because he didn't see a reason to help air out Germans they had him do non-combat stuff.