I have considered myself to be a pacifist for most of my life. I call myself a pacifist because I hate war, which makes sense
because in the simplest of ways, that’s all a pacifist is; someone who hates war. In my early years of hating war, I stood by the belief that I hated ALL types of
violence. I thought it wrong to have so much as a violent wish or thought. I believed that every act of violence could be avoided. As a kid growing up, this was for one, a very basic principal of mine, and two, very easy for me to follow. The problem is, I went through this horrible process many of us refer to as “growing up.”
The growing up process has modified my basic belief over the years, and while explaining it may seem complex, I find it to be even simpler than my original belief. See at the very root of our existence, buried beneath thousands of years of evolution, dirt and mud, is the primal fact that we are actually
animals. This means that we act like animals. That may not seem like much, but in retrospect, comparing our actions to other animals can teach us the difference between violence, and war.
If you look at other animals, you will notice that their world does include violence. Some hunt, others get hunted, some fight for mates, or for their offspring, and others fight in self-defense. You will also notice that in the animal kingdom, war in all of its definition does not exist. So I still call myself a pacifist, but only in the simplest of terms. I hate war I believe it is pointless. However, I am no longer afraid to use violence when hunting, defending myself, my mate or my children, and neither should you – after all you are just an animal.