True pacifism is anything but passive.  As with any other Right Action, it’s not what you do, but how you do it that matters …

People have been aggressively protesting for thousands of years and effectuated no lasting change.  Have militant feminists really softened the stance of even one hard-line misogynist?  Empirically not.  Yes, laws have been enacted to “protect” women’s rights, and yet the men that have had those laws shoved down their fear-filled throats are now simply finding more subtle ways to attack and denigrate the feminine.

And on the human rights scene, a similar Truth has steadily revealed itself.    Gandhi didn’t hug those trying to shoot or harm, and yet he did stand stolidly in their way with Compassion for their confusion and ignorance … and it was such caring courage displayed by him and his followers that eventually persuaded the British government to see the error in their ways.

Today these Truths are just as applicable, and their conflict-based alternatives are still just as ineffective.  The Way out of our current social quagmires is standing up for Justice in ways that do not threaten our perpetrators.  What is threatened tends to defend itself and strengthen its position.  Force is allWays counter-productive as a consequence …

So get out there and stand strong for Justice in whatever way you wish — Just remember to do so in a manner that does not intensify the pains you are trying to alleviate!

Remember — “There is no way to Peace; Peace IS the Way” (M. K. Gandhi)

Filed under: simple Answers to tough Questions by Scaughdt