Ideology and War: Pacifism and Eschatological Militarism in Foreign Policy

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9 word format

document in English

humanities/philosophy

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published 02/10/2007

review : Completed

level : Advanced

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War is a situation that embodies the principle of duality: one side is pitted against another in an “an act of violence intended to compel an opponent to fulfill our will .” That will, whatever it may be, “has its root in a political object ” that is determined within ideological constraints. This pattern is corroborated by conclusions determined by other human endeavors. Psychologically speaking, perception precedes action; philosophically, ontology precedes ethics, and politically, ideology precedes war. As the soldier-cum-philosopher of war Clausewitz muses, “Is not War merely another kind of writing and language for political thoughts? .”

However, neither militarism nor pacifism describe monolithic entities; both terms connote sets of ideologies under which many subsets exist
Both pacifism and eschatological militarism assume religious significance within a political context
In order to be examined as an ideology in general, it is useful to first divorce pacifism from any specific religious formulations, and analyze it in its ideal philosophical form.
The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, exiled religious and political leader of Tibet, explains that According to Buddhist psychology, most of our troubles are due to our passionate desire for and attachment to things that we misapprehend as enduring entities
In reaction to the brutal occupation that followed, armed elements of the Tibetan population were actually trained by the CIA, which hoped to use the Tibetan cause to fight against Communist China.
If pacifism has failed in the example of Tibet, it has much to do with Phillips' critique of pacifism as a means of engaging in conflict.
The history of religious pacifisms does not end with the ideally pacifist example of Buddhism.
The pacifist impulse thus exists at the root of both Eastern and Western faiths