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Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle in North America
"This extraordinarily important book cuts to the heart of one of the central reasons movements to bring about social and environmental justice always fail. The fundamental question here is: is violence ever an acceptable tool to help bring about social change? This is probably the most important question of our time, yet so often discussions around it fall into clichés and
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Paperback, 228 pages
Published
April 1st 2007
by AK Press
(first published 1998)
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Community Reviews
(showing 1-30)
I’m not quite sure what to make of this book. On the one hand, it’s the most compelling and concise criticism of Euroamerican pacifist/nonviolence movements I’ve read to date, and as someone who is not a pacifist I agree with many of the points made by Churchill (as well as Ed Mead of the George Jackson Brigade and Men Against Sexism, and Mike Ryan, a Canadian anti-racist activist). I think Churchill is absolutely right that symbolic rather than material resistance has come to dominate nonviolen
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Really not a Ward Churchill fan, especially after reading this book. The point that he makes throughout the book is legitimate; however, his tone is moralistic and very self-righteous and reeks of privilege, which I found extremely off-putting. His definition of resistance as armed revolt and armed revolt only is excessively narrow, and it invisibilizes countless profound liberation movements and tactics that were not pacifistic but under his definition would have been labeled so. I appreciate t
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To read this book with an open mind, one must begin by acknowledging the fact that the luxuries and lifestyles enjoyed in the first world are dependent upon violence and destruction propagated in the third world. As Churchill says “Pacifists, no less than their unpacifist counterparts, are quite aware that violence already exists as an integral component in the execution of state policies and requires no provocation” (70). A horrible example of this is occurring in Peru as I write this. A “fair
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Churchill makes a very powerful argument against certain types of Western pacifism. It's certainly easy to be a pacifist you're not the target of the system's violence. The biggest "wow" moment for me was when Churchill took on academic pacifist-types who support violent anti-imperial struggles abroad. Churchill brilliantly argues how their positioning of their role as the discursive attackers of the system allied with subaltern populations fighting imperialism abroad reproduces the dynamics of
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Jul 23, 2007
Liz
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
Hippies who feel cheated out of a revolution and want to know why
This most recent edition of Ward Churchill's essay "Pacifism as Pathology" includes not only the original text, but three additional essays/reflections on Churchill's work, by other authors.
I can't explain how valuable, necessary and timely this collection is. Churchill's essay is a poignant and scathing description of how major pacifict movements have not only failed to fulfill any meaningful political agenda, but have only served to protect those in power while undermining those who they clai ...more
I can't explain how valuable, necessary and timely this collection is. Churchill's essay is a poignant and scathing description of how major pacifict movements have not only failed to fulfill any meaningful political agenda, but have only served to protect those in power while undermining those who they clai ...more
We can simply watch our systems collapse.
We can try to design successor systems before the collapse.
Or we can try to hasten the collapse with no idea of what might replace that which we have.
This book maintains the 3rd is right and that protest that delays the "right timing", are wrong while itself failing to attempt reflection on if the proposed solution is in itself a very special pathology prohibiting the building of better systems to replace what was.
Love the critique of the "violence begets violence" attitude of the bourgeois-liberal American "left". His argument of it as a pathological condition leaves something to be desired, but his therapeutic solution is downright hilarious.
interesting take on non-violence as white entitlement
Reminds me a bit of the Unabomber's tiresome tome.
Jensen's introduction was strange and used odd metaphors, although I generally agreed with the points he was making by the time he meandered around to laying them out.
Churchill's main text was excellent and raised a lot of good points about the privilege and ineffectiveness of pacifist activism.
Churchill's main text was excellent and raised a lot of good points about the privilege and ineffectiveness of pacifist activism.
Here's the thing - As an advocate of nonviolence and a full-time nonviolence trainer, I agreed with most of what this book had to say. The problem is that this book wasn't really talking about nonviolence, at least as I understand it, as King, Gandhi, Chaves and others taught and practiced it. It was talking about a very watered down and dangerous MISunderstanding of nonviolence. He was talking about "pacifism" as a "do-nothingness" approach to social change, which could not be further from the
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i had given this book two stars from memory - what had stuck in my mind was Churchill's conflation of what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust and what might befall the American New Left, and what i remembered as being his dismissal of prefigurative politics.
However, upon rereading it i think this was a case of the good fading from memory with time, while the bad became larger than it really was. i still think Churchill's "Jews being led to the slaughter" argument is a red herring - it had ...more
However, upon rereading it i think this was a case of the good fading from memory with time, while the bad became larger than it really was. i still think Churchill's "Jews being led to the slaughter" argument is a red herring - it had ...more
This was such a refreshing read after attending yet another annual "anti-war" march in Chicago. It was refreshing in the way it critiqued the now mostly-diluted concept of pacifism and how pacifism alone won't end the war or make our government stop its actions. It's been 40 to 50 years since the Vietnam invasion; the state has learned. At the same time, I agree with Churchill that the people who put themselves directly in harms way to highlight state aggression/violence and end up serving years
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As inflammatory as Ward Churchill can seem at times, much of what he writes makes sense, and much of what has been used to demonize him has been taken out of context. This is a good example. Rather than the call for violent insurrection it's commonly made out to be, "Pacifism As Pathology" is a clear-eyed look at the use of violence in revolutionary change. Churchill is able to look at some of pacifism's sacred cows - King, Gandhi, et al. - to really show that their impact would have been minima
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Ward Churchill has the nerve to point out that if Jews, Queers, Communists and Freemasons had capped one Nazi Gestapo officer each, when they roundups began, Hitler's Germany would have run out of Gestapo long, long before the Holocaust got underway. Could'a Should'a Would'a, I know, but the point is taken.
For violating the dogma that states "It is best to just let the government kill you and your children, because violence is bad," (and for pointing out that White America needs to stop acting ...more
For violating the dogma that states "It is best to just let the government kill you and your children, because violence is bad," (and for pointing out that White America needs to stop acting ...more
A straightforward and accessible critical analysis of pacifism and its imagined role in creating radical change. Churchill's premise is that pacifism is a pathology, a delusional worldview. He outlines some basic arguments against pacifism - an ideology that rules out totally the use of violence - and explains how they are rooted in misunderstandings of history and the desire for privileged activists to remain in a ''comfort zone'' where they avoid the violence of the state even as the oppressed
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Oct 10, 2007
Don Azules
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
anyone, especially those who think we can vote an alternative into this friendly-facist country
"the masters tools will never dismantle the masters house"
assata shakur
He presents pretty solid arguments that non-violent
resistance only "worked" with lots of violence being
used at the same time. He makes an interesting case
with Holocaust resistance.
The man was fired from CU-Boulder for being too radical-- but he seems to be stating alot of things that seem pretty obvious, the emporer has no clothes, okay no big suprise! but the progressive left is pretty silent on real resistance these days. ...more
assata shakur
He presents pretty solid arguments that non-violent
resistance only "worked" with lots of violence being
used at the same time. He makes an interesting case
with Holocaust resistance.
The man was fired from CU-Boulder for being too radical-- but he seems to be stating alot of things that seem pretty obvious, the emporer has no clothes, okay no big suprise! but the progressive left is pretty silent on real resistance these days. ...more
While I agree with most of the points Churchill argues, the evidence he uses is insufficient and overused.
I would have liked to see Churchill use more of a variety of supporting events and ideas. A few of the examples used multiple times were violence by the state during the American civil rights movement, British colonization of India and the holocaust. While Churchill uses all three examples to expertly back his claims, they cannot fully support his thesis. There is simply not enough variety ...more
I would have liked to see Churchill use more of a variety of supporting events and ideas. A few of the examples used multiple times were violence by the state during the American civil rights movement, British colonization of India and the holocaust. While Churchill uses all three examples to expertly back his claims, they cannot fully support his thesis. There is simply not enough variety ...more
Mar 29, 2008
Josh
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
Activists, pacifists, wanna-be revolutionaries.
Recommended to Josh by:
Theresa
Shelves:
revolution-conflict
In this extended essay, bulwarked by an equally long introduction by another thinker and an updated conclusion, Churchill argues that the US left's embrace of pacifism is a self-serving tactic that ameliorates feelings of guilt amongst the privileged by allowing them to believe they are working in opposition to the system. Churchill is a scholar and activist, not a veteran of guerilla warfare, but his ideological acceptance of violence as a possible tactic is both a radical and well-founded stan
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I 100% give up on this book. I have tried and tried to read it 5 or 6 times. The entire first half of the book is just Ward Churchill wanking off about how great of a non-white ally he is. Both Peter Gelderloos and Ward Churchill have been criticized for different reasons, about their personal lives and behaviours. I don't know them personally, so I can't comment on which one is a better or worse human. Further, it's been a reeeeaaaaaaalllly long time since I read "How Nonviolence Protects the S
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A very original argument. A little over the top, and not always great writing, but the argument really needs to be heard: Basically that all the pacifist movements that congratulate themselves on their gains, and criticize the armed movements that share some of their aims, need to look at the role that those armed movements played in achieving those aims! For example, the antiwar movement that credited itself for forcing the u.s. withdrawal from vietnam...but whose impact would have been zilch w
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"The question central to the emergence and maintenance of nonviolence as the oppositional foundation of American activism has not been truly pacifist formulation, 'How can we forge a revolutionary politics within which we can avoid inflicting violence upon others?' On the contrary, a more accurate guiding question has been, 'What sort of politics might I engage in which will allow me to posture as a progressive AND allow me to avoid incurring harm to MYSELF?' Hence, the trappings of pacifism hav
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Yikes. Some of his arguments make me cringe, like his opening arguments about the "pacifist" role the Jews played during the Nazi Holocaust. I'd like to tell Ward to fuck right off there, to be perfectly honest. The rest of the book has better & more succinct points to make, although I would agree with some of the other reviewers that he does seem to make sweeping generalizations & characterize people that disagree with him or have contrary views as unbalanced & not worth listening t
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Posits that the pervasive theater of non-violent protest in America a) may be cathartic, but is ultimately not effective, b) reinforces state power and the idea that the state is open to dissent c) allows colonies (internal and external) to bear the brunt of the state's violence while offering nothing more than statements of "solidarity." Points out that the Viet Nam war ended not because of resistance in America (which largely fell off before the end of combat operations) but beacuse of the *ar
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It's easy to give the hasty reaction of giving this book 5 stars because it argues against pacifism, but I'm not convinced the argument is even that great. On the whole, Churchill seems to be arguing for a diversity of tactics and against dogmatic pacifism. However, what is sorely lacking is a critique of the conceptual [i]morality[/i] that drives these attitudes. When it comes down to it, I think this shared aspect among pacifists and the state is a key factor in pacifists acting like the state
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If you're tired of the dilettante mentality of your fellow "social revolutionaries" this is a must read. Pacifism as Pathology makes a powerful case for violent, armed struggle in the face of what Churchill and Ryan make clear is a world of our own making. Our current, socially acceptable forms of protest are not only not good enough, they are totally ineffective and tacitly in support of the violence our Governments perpetrate on ourselves and others. For anyone who feels impotent in our cultur
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Good chat on somethings i`d not really thought about much before. Its written in a really brutal style and critisises some historical events usually untouched by writers(at least the ones I've read) - but i`m not sure I can argue with too many of his conclusions.
The bit about battering pacifists with experiences way out of their comfort zone in an attempt to cure their psychological diseases would make a good Portlandia sketch, but I`d of rather he spent the space going into some of the conflict ...more
The bit about battering pacifists with experiences way out of their comfort zone in an attempt to cure their psychological diseases would make a good Portlandia sketch, but I`d of rather he spent the space going into some of the conflict ...more
this is some heavy shit. it's a topic that isn't brought up very often amongst us "left" thinking folks; at what point should we fight back? sure one can argue that pacifism has worked in the past...and maybe it has...but the "system" continues to tighten it's grip and the pacifist tactics of the past aren't working anymore.... churchill breaks it down in a very intellectual way.He's a true scholar, who hopefully future generations will regard as a great thinker and philosopher. if you're ready
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An argument for including violence on the list of legitimate responses to oppression. I read this on the train on my way to a Vipassana retreat, where the prevailing rule is to "Take great care not to disturb others". I agreed with both lines of thinking. Talk about a mindfuck! WC makes a compelling argument.
This was a fascinating and challenging book/essay. I definitely have issues with many of the book's ideas and some of it is downright offensive. But I think all pacifists or pacifist-inclined people should read it. Many of the criticisms are valid and ought to be given a lot of thought.
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American Indian writer, political activist and former professor of ethnic studies in Colorado at Boulder from 1990 till 2007.
Churchill`s writings are mostly about the history of the American Indians and what he calls the genocide on the indigenous people of North America.
An essay of him where he claimed the 9/11 attacks on the world trade center were a response to America`s foreign policy, sparked ...more
More about Ward Churchill...
Churchill`s writings are mostly about the history of the American Indians and what he calls the genocide on the indigenous people of North America.
An essay of him where he claimed the 9/11 attacks on the world trade center were a response to America`s foreign policy, sparked ...more
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“The desire for a nonviolent and cooperative world is the healthiest of all psychological manifestations. This is the overarching principle of liberation and revolution. Undoubtedly, it seems the highest order of contradiction that, in order to achieve nonviolence, we must first break with it in overcoming its root causes. Therein lies our only hope.”
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“The Jews who participated in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, including those who went on what they thought were suicide missions, had a higher rate of survival than those who went along. Never forget that.
The only way out of a double bind is to smash it. Never forget that either.
--Derrick Jensen”
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More quotes…
The only way out of a double bind is to smash it. Never forget that either.
--Derrick Jensen”
