pacifism vs violence
Pacifism seems to place infinite weight on sins of commission and none whatsoever on those of omission. It is a counterfeit ethics: for instead of grappling with the hard realities of our world, pacifism takes as its focus the imagined moral purity of the pacifist himself—who merely pretends to be good while others do the dirty work of defending
... See moreSam Harris • Sometimes, Violence Really Is the Answer
But if this Trojan Horse operation was as precise as it appears to have been, then it ranks among the most ethical acts of self-defense in memory. There are no “innocent” members of Hezbollah—whose only contributions to human culture have been the ruination of Lebanon and the modern evil of suicide bombing. This Iranian proxy has been firing
... See moreSam Harris • Sometimes, Violence Really Is the Answer
Perhaps the most astonishing lesson of World War Two is that, in the aftermath of total war and unconditional surrender, a hard reset of two very different cultures was possible. Judging from the Allied victory over Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, it certainly seems that one can bomb ideas—by obliterating many of the people who hold them. Kill a
... See moreFrom Sam Harris • Hamas and Human Sacrifice
„Hinter dem Ruf nach Frieden verschanzen sich die Mörder.“
Paul Spiegel
Paul Spiegel. Translation: "Behind the call for peace, the murderers take cover."
If you are uncomfortable with an operation that precisely targeted a group of jihadists who aspire to commit an actual genocide, just what sort of self-defense on Israel’s part would you support?
Sam Harris • Sometimes, Violence Really Is the Answer
“Hitler killed five million [sic] Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.....It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany.... As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions.”
Gandhi on the Holocaust
– Mahatma Gandhi, June 1946, in an interview with his biographer Louis Fischer.
Tragically, four children are reported to have been killed. However, compared to almost any other military operation, this act of mass sabotage appears to have produced very few unintended deaths. It is an example of exactly the sort of calibrated violence that Israel’s critics claim to support. And it has delivered a profound psychological blow to
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