War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
John Stuart Mill
English economist & philosopher (1806 - 1873)
2006-08-09 19:08:22 · 19 answers · asked by mark g 6 in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
I love this quote, it is true that yes, war is an ugly thing, I know this first-hand, so does my husband, but i do know that it is not the ugliest of things. I would rather die than not know such things as love and freedom, the things I am willing to fight for.
2006-08-09 19:17:57 · answer #1 · answered by me 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This would mean you are struggling for some value worth dying for and not merely for supremacy. Standing up for something may not always mean killing someone. It might just be the most dishonorable act, if you are a hundred times superior in arms than the enemy you have picked for yourself. If hate is the basis of your wars and crippling the already crippled.
Standing up might involve seeking end to all wars because humanity and the planet can no longer afford them given the capability we have acquired to destroy. You need to have newer paradigms for the new world which are up to its challenges and not some retrograde patriotism
2006-08-10 02:34:42 · answer #2 · answered by boogie man 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you stand for nothing, you fall for anything. Sorry, but I can't say where that line was first penned.
However, true pacifists, believe in the longer view of our existence, and they prefer to die and be born back on earth later rather than take up arms to supposedly protect their own life.
Taking up arms in a foreign war against an invisible enemy takes a little more defining for some of us. Killing another person in a one on one personal confrontation is not even legal these days, as self defence continues to be frowned on in the court houses. We are expected to ring for the police!
The ambiguities of our society are sufficient to drive us to war, anyway. War is only what we make it. Some love to bleed and die, others like to be here to rebuild. There will be a 'Morning After.'
Good Luck with your choices!
2006-08-10 02:24:15 · answer #3 · answered by onebeeswax 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The ugliness of inaction and allowing evil to go unchallenged is the ugliest thing of all. In the 1930s, a country attacked it's neighbors and the rest of the world did nothing thinking they would stop after they got what they wanted. However that country continued and finally when the world took note that Germany was not going to stop and was going to keep on trying to take over Europe. The other countries that finally stood up to Germany discovered that Hitler's evil went well beyond seeking terrority it involved ethnic cleansing and genocide to further their goals.
In our day and age we are finally standing up to a similar yet less visible evil, in which they seek to destroy the American way of life regardless of race or religion.
2006-08-10 02:19:08 · answer #4 · answered by Ray 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well lets start off with the bit about better men... Who in Gods name is to say they are better men just because of the way they live there lifes. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to kill for is a friend of mine. But the fight there is always the fight to better ones self and others around you. I think this quote is a great example of political spin that might be used today. Infact it just was...
2006-08-10 02:20:00 · answer #5 · answered by magpiesmn 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Not even that is the ugliest thing. Fear of your fellow man is even more miserable than the man without a cause, For if the man without a cause can trust his fellow man to fight for him, however low a thing that might be, he is still quite free to exist in his cowardly little parsitic life. If he cannot do that then he is confined to his own abilities, which don't matter cause he has no cause. Therefore, to fear your fellow man is even more confining than to have no cause to fight for.
2006-08-10 02:31:59 · answer #6 · answered by Solomon Dump 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My feeling is that war is justified under clear and emminent danger,and not a product of subversive cultural destroying ideals,waged solely for the pocketbooks of those subject to reap the benefits-Iraq is a good example.
2006-08-10 02:21:34 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well i think wars and killings are the worst human people can do it is a primitive life followed by death and sorrow
2006-08-10 02:23:54 · answer #8 · answered by carina blubba 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i believe the difference between a pacifist and someone who does not agree to our current war trends are very obvious. The revolutionary war was one to be proud of. The Vietnamese to our present war are very shameful acts indeed
2006-08-10 02:16:52 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities. Voltaire
2006-08-10 06:52:49 · answer #10 · answered by Bearable 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋