 "Photo:")
We are a Jesuit university. We stress the importance of activism. Last year Jeff Guhin, a Loyola senior, and other Loyola students camped out in the Peace Quad in an attempt to make a protest statement about the war in Iraq.
While Jeff was commended in his endeavor by many professors and students, I never stopped by the proclaimed "peace tent," and I consider myself a pacifist.
I believe in activism, especially in a college setting, but I choose not to voice an active opinion against the war in Iraq. I don't believe in a positive obligation. I don't believe in the moral implications of the Good Samaritan.
By acting, a person has proved that this choice is his most preferred course, that he receives benefit by acting accordingly.
Proximity is what drives the Good Samaritan. He feels personal benefit attributed to his own situation by helping others.
Proximity is what the government tries to invent with catch phrases such as "weapons of mass destruction" or "forces of evil." Proximity is what the peace lovers attempt to create with their pictures of Iraqi children.
There is a war going on. Person A (Saddam Hussein) has aggressed against a nation of individuals, Person B (Iraqi citizens). Claiming to be a knight in shining armor, Person C (President Bush) has barreled in to save the day and make the world safe for democracy. But who is this knight? The so-called savior is nothing more than an aggressor himself.
Bush and the U.S. government are not my elected officials. They are not my protectors. They are aggressors towards me.
Every payday I feel the fist of their aggression beating against my wallet. Seeking a democratic solution to the end of war by demanding the rebuilding of Iraq only entrusts these government aggressors with the power and authority to continue to wage wars.
The anti-war, anti-Bush, left-wing movement encourages rebuilding Iraq by flooding U.S. dollars into the Iraqi economy. This money doesn't appear out of thin air; it comes from the oppressive and coercive taxation of innocent American citizens and the haphazard monetary policies of fractional reserve banking.
Innocent American citizens are not represented as persons A, B or C. They were the victims of C before he took his role as the world's savior, and will continue to be his victims long after Iraq has reclaimed itself as sovereign.
Demanding peace by any means necessary is like a parent scolding an older sibling for reclaiming his toy from a thieving younger brother, simply because the younger sibling was screaming. "Parents have no concern for justice; we just want quiet!" as Bill Cosby says.
Attempting to alleviate the injustices of Saddam has resulted in the alternate oppressions of Bush's regime against innocent Iraqis and innocent U.S. citizens simultaneously.
To alleviate the plight of Iraqis by increasing the aggression against Americans is no solution at all. There are more injustices at play in a wartime scenario than the deaths of soldiers.
Jumping the gun to peaceful activism fails to address the causes of war. To legitimately speak out against the war in Iraq and any other war, one must recognize what allows for the existence of war - governments - and what empowers governments with the financial capacity to wage war - taxes.
To be a truly active pacifist, one must be a tax rebel. To follow such views in action means a jail sentence. I'm not suggesting tax evasion. I'm trying to show how voting for more government regulations and interventions, as is found in most liberal agendas, is the same thing as voting for war.
Ideology and theory are the most immediate means of successful revolution. People don't wage wars. Governments do. Democracy is not our savior. It is not a cure-all solution.
Democracy has failed and will continue to do so until true freedom is achieved, but for that to happen, people need to recognize the need and importance of personal individual autonomy and liberty.
I will not fight in a war against Iraq or such a war. I will fight my ongoing battle with the liberal ideals of this country's citizens who vote against the individual and sacrifice his freedoms and safety.
Be the first to comment on this article!