Thought for the Day, Feb 6th 2019

"Being an avowed pacifist when you can fight so naturally is like a polyglot refusing to speak their mother tongue." ~ some random neuron in my brain.

I'm a avowed pacifist, not a polyglot though. I dislike violence, but I'm one of those people who moves towards a disturbance rather than away. When threatened I find myself moving into a fighting stance. If the vast majority of people are sheep then I'm one of life's sheepdogs.

Once a mugger tried to stab me and I accidentally broke his arm. His knife and the contents of my stomach ended up in the gutter and I never let myself get that drunk again.

Violence is bad, but it is also a form of communication. This day and age has seen the return of an ideology of violence that most of us had hoped was long dead.

I'm talking, of course, of Nazism.

Just over a year ago an antifascist activist punched a Nazi ideologue in the face during a televised interview, spawning the Punching Nazi meme that continues to this day.

The Original and the best "good night alt-right"

Some people feel that punching Nazis is bad because violence is bad (duh) and resorting to violence just legitimises the violent behaviour of the Nazis.

Others feel that punching Nazis is good because Nazis are bad (duh), which makes resorting to violence a legitimate tactic to curb the violent behaviour of the Nazis.

So where do I, an avowed pacifist, stand on the whole punching Nazis issue?

Well it comes back to me not being a polyglot. Hear me out.

The nature of the Nazi ideology is violence. Its every word and deed is violent. Its long term goals are violence and its continued existence is violence. To paraphrase John F. Kennedy quoting someone else:

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of violence is that pacifists do nothing."  ~ that neuron is on a roll.

Just as I wouldn't go to a foreign country and try communicating loudly and slowly in my native tongue I won't try and debate a Nazi. They don't speak debate. They speak only violence.

So to communicate with Nazis we too must lower ourselves to speak to them in violence.

So I'm all in favour of punching Nazis as it's the only language that they understand. Punching Nazis doesn't break my vow of pacifism and I'm okay with that.

The original snowflakes. Cold, wet, white and fragile; melt and run when heated or pressured. Only dangerous in large numbers