Conclusion: On the Appeal of Pacifism

Abstract

Pacifism is often charged with singing a siren song. In their defence, pacifists insist that the idea that pacifism captures a moral intuition. They also deny the (false) accusation that pacifism equates passivism. And they argue that pacifists have a sounder grasp of the problem of war and the war system than their opponents do. Another feature of twenty-first-century pacifism is that it presents itself in a subdued tone. Twenty-first-century pacifism is a chastened pacifism. A not unappealing picture of pacifism emerges. And yet it has all the appearance that also today’s pacifism will remain a minority position. Pacifism’s limited appeal probably results from its inconvenient nature: the ideas of pacifism place a demand on people that many of us experience as overwhelming.