Post 1

I plan to blog about pacifism.

I usually assume i'm a pacifist, though the parameters of that label are limits i have not fully mapped out. Part of this endeavour--blogging--should help me determine what pacifism means, and should assist me to discover whether i am a pacifist.

Now, whether or not i believe something does not mean i concurrently hold the premise that my beliefs are unchangeable. I hold my beliefs because i think they are true, based on my experiences and my reasoning, but i am open to being shown that my beliefs don't hold water. To be thus changed, one who engages me will, i assume, likely need to use logic as well as rhetoric and explain the basis for their beliefs and statements. I think beliefs occur as a result of both nature and nurture, and i try to get a handle on my beliefs that will best allow me to operate in existence; to put it simply, i want my beliefs to help me be good. Certainly, i have beliefs about what "good" means, and i hold the belief that i can be wrong about the meaning of what "good" is. My idea of goodness has something to do with the experience and/or continuation of life. The profondities and nuances of that i will not work out, since this blog can only encompass so much, and as an exercise on limitations i will focus on pacifism. Does pacifism contribute or take away from life, or does it do both?

I start out with the treatise that pacifism is the desire to help human life flourish by encouraging ongoing communion between people, no matter what events have transpired in the past, are currently happening, or are expected to occur. This definition of mine differs from the usual meaning which treats pacifism as opposition to war or military action.

I expect my posts shall reflect on the meaning of the word, the history of pacifism and its practitioners, political implications of being a pacifist, my personal experiences as a pacifist, understandings of war and peace, and more. Certainly way more if i expect this blog to be a worthwhile piece of e-scripture.

Note about a treasured idiom of mine:
Assumptions help us communicate by putting some definite limits to our conversation. However, i find questioning all assumptions to be helpful in determining whether one assumption supports another. Even those assumptions which support things we hold to be "good." So, being tickled by the phrase "When you assume you only make an ass out of u and me," i took the phrase further. Where does one make asses? At the donkey factory. Therefore, when someone tells me they assume something, i like to tell them, "It's quittin' time! Shut down the machines. Close up the factory." Or something to that effect.

So, let's get it on.