Resistance to War

Carl von Clausewitz states it best in his book On War, “War is a mere continuation of policy by other means…War is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument,…a carrying out of the same by other means…wars are only the expressions of manifestations of policy itself.” Basically war is just a tool used by governments to implement their foreign policy. A brutal way, yes; but the only way humanity has seen fit. Resisters of war find that unacceptable for various reasons; ergo countless literature from conscientious objectors and pacifists on the horrific consequences of war. However, for the most part it seems that these kinds of people just complain about how atrocious war is, but they never have an alternative or solution. If pacifists want to rid the world of war, they must create a new tool for which governments can use to continue foreign policy. William James brings us an alternative to war – what he calls a moral equivalent to war.

William James moral equivalent to war is constructed from his belief in what human nature is. For James, human nature is in harmony with violence; he believes that instilled in every human being is this desire for violence/excitement, what he calls our warlike trait. James solution stems primarily from his notion on what humans instincts are. Thus his idea is for a nonviolent army, a social army. This social draft would include everyone and no one would be exempt. The purpose of this coalition would be to educate the youth about the world – a real and true experience of the world through practical means. This would be a way to connect people from different cultures to people of other cultures at a truly personal level; such that our desire to kill them or create violence would disappear because of our knowledge that they are like us – they are humans.

To reiterate, resisters of war are those who cannot accept war for various reasons at a personal level. While I neither endorse nor oppose the concept of war, I do believe that unless there is an alternative to war, war must go on and will continue to go on. Ergo, alternatives like William James should be thoroughly considered as practical solutions to preventing war by resisters of war.