History Main / ActualPacifist

--->'''Simon''': I've never killed anyone before.
--->'''Shepherd Book''': I was there son, and I'd say you haven't yet.

* Many governments, even some of the most warlike in history, allow some people to avoid serving as a member of or contributing to violent military actions. Such people have proven themselves to be conscientious objectors, rather than merely opposed to the war in question or cowards in general. In order to further prove this, many will volunteer for dangerous duties in wartime, such as [[TheMedic combat medics]]. One group of Mormon conscientious objectors in World War II were used as some of the first Smokejumpers. As in "parachuting into forest fires".

* Most members of nonviolent social movements fit this description. Many of them (both movements and the people in them) were so {{BadAss}} precisely because a) [[{{Determinator}} they kept to their commitment to nonviolence despite incredible oppression]] and b) a lot of them succeeded. Some of the most famous examples are the Indian Independence movement, the US Civil Rights movement, and the 1989 nationalist revolutions in Europe which effectively dismantled Stalinism.
** The Indian Independence movement only succeeded because The British was pretty much bankrupt (read: had spent all of their own AND India's money) after the World War II against Nazi Germany, and so didn't had the money or the manpower to remain in India, and India herself ended up with povetry, social injustice and wars even today. The U.S. Civil Rights movement didn't get so much success until they played the hard balls 1965-1968 at Watts and Washington and the 1989 revolutions only succeeded because the communist governments no longer had the support of Soviet Union and no military might on their own, unlike in China or North Korea.
** One more contemporary example is the Tibetan Independence movement. At a meeting of expatriate Tibetan resistance leaders in 2008, the Dalai Lama reputedly said that there was room for much political disagreement, and that this was natural and healthy. ''But'', he said, there is no room for disagreement or compromise on the decision that the movement would be nonviolent. "And so," activist Tenzin Tsundue reported later, "the movement will be nonviolent."
*** Of course, he also said that when the US was training a guerrilla army for him as revealed way back in 1998. And he was at least partially responsible for the Tibetan uprising in 1959. I'm not sure going for pacifism ''when you already fought and lost'' counts for this entry.
*** This is also missing the point: he wasn't trying to make a pro-pacifist stand so much as trying to get the other leaders to stop sanctioning Tibetan terrorist groups long enough so that someone else might take their side for once.
** It would be more accurate to say that the US Civil Rights movement was non-violent so long as no one who committed violence is considered as part of the movement. I'm sure that the Black Panthers would say that they were part of the US Civil Rights movement, and that King's pacifism wouldn't have seemed so appealing without a fear of the alternative.
*** My bad, I should have stipulated that certain major branches of the CivilRightsMovement were ActualPacifists; didn't mean to exclude Malcolm X, the Black Panthers and all the rest, even if I do disagree with their tactics.

* Ditto Buddhism, due to one of the parts of the Noble Eightfold Path ("Right Action") saying not to take life. A major theme amongst Buddhist teachings is not harming others in any way -- be it physical (stealing, violence, selling booze or meat) or mental (gossip, insults, etc).
* Christianity was originally innovative because, regardless of the reason violence is committed, it's thought of as an inherently bad thing for which one must atone. Believe it or not, this was a ''very radical concept'' a couple of millennia ago.
** Some sects of Christianity, typically [[TheStoic ascetic]] ones such as the Quakers (Religious Society of Friends,) are absolute pacifists.
** It's more than that - originally, Christianity was ''pure'' pacifist.
*** What do you expect - the guy that founded it reacted to his friend's attempt to defend him with a sword by [[HealingHands healing]] [[SaveTheVillain the dude]] his friend had slashed.
** Soldiers weren't allowed to be baptized until they'd renounced military life (prostitutes, on the other hand, were welcome to keep being prostitutes, although obviously it wasn't exactly encouraged). That of course met an abrupt end when the Roman Empire converted and had to come up with a theory of Just War.
** There are various values of truth to this. The first gentile to become a Christian was a Roman Centurion, and Jesus commanded that his disciples go armed. Not to mention large swathes of the Old Testament about the valid uses of force. Christianity isn't (or ought not be) militant, but seeing it as purely pacifist requires [[HandWave handwaving]].
*** You're definitely right, Christianity as a religion is definitely not an actual pacifist, however it is an ideal to strive toward for all of it's members. God however [[{{Understatement}} is a different story]]. TheBible as a whole makes it very, ''very'' clear he can do whatever he damn well want.
* A more impressive military actual pacifist was WWII veteran Desmond T. Doss, who refused to bear arms or drill on Saturday due to his Seventh-Day Adventist beliefs. Doss was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for singlehandedly rescuing 75 of his fellow soldiers from an escarpment under fire from the Japanese on Okinawa. From his medal citation, "As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar and machine gun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them 1 by 1 to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands." Truly a kick-behind pacifist.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahimsa_in_Jainism Jains]]. Enough Said.
* Jeannette Rankin (R-MT), the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress, voted against the U.S. entering World War I--not that remarkable; the measure passed handily, but she was one of 50 members of Congress to vote against it. Two dozen years later, she was the only person in either house of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan on December 8, 1941. She said that as a woman, she can't go to war, so she refuses to send anyone else.
** Both times, she ended up out of Congress shortly after the votes. It turns out that, no matter what your political conviction, [[CaptainObvious voting against a war when the public supports it isn't a smart idea.]]
* James Shaver Woodsworth, a Methodist minister and pacifist, was the sole member of the Canadian Parliament who voted against the motion to go to war with Germany in 1939.
* The country of Switzerland has such an impressive military force they could probably conquer at least most of Europe if they really wanted to. They have never decided to use it.
** This Swiss troper begs to differ. Switzerland has a military force and it's not as small as one would think (since we just have a population of about 8 million), but still ... conquer most of Europe? Maybe Liechtenstein or Luxemburg...
** Swiss pacifism is also relatively recent. At one point, Swiss mercenaries were so deadly on a battlefield that it was eventually considered a war crime to use them. The French also had a hard time going to war without Swiss pikemen.
*** The Pope still has the Swiss Guard for protection (In addition to the colorful pikemen, the Holy Father also has those who are doing the heavy duty protection with the rifles and SMGs and such. Don't mess with the Pope, lest you have to mess with the Swiss)
** They also very rarely need to defend themselves, because Switzerland is surrounded by mountains with narrow passes as the only way to enter the country. Any invasion would basically be the Battle of Thermopylae with even numbers. It's easy to be a pacifist when nobody's stupid enough to go to war with you.
*** Yet somehow, there's a Swiss law [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland that dictates that every house should have a gun.]] Mostly assault rifles.
** The Swiss neutrality is not only very recent, but not very pure. They were common mercenaries until the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Not only that, but they have 120,000 active soldiers and compulsory military service. They have also, technically, been involved in several recent peacekeeping operations, including Bosnia and Korea, albeit with small numbers of unarmed troops.

** The real Heero Yuy (not to be confused with the pilot that he was named after) created the "Total Pacifism" philosophy, and both King Peacecraft and his daughter Relena, and Quatre's father adopted his beliefs.

* WarhammerFantasyRoleplay 1st edition had the priests (usually [[StaffChick priestesses]], actually)) of Shallya, who were banned from ever killing another human being even in self defense, and would lose their place in the priesthood if they violated this rule. They were allowed to kill [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman nonhumans]] and nonliving things like daemons and undead, though only in self defense, and their [[TheMedic limited]] spell repertoire and nonexistant combat training helped make sure that they avoided both possibilities like the plague. Speaking of plague, there was one exception from that ban: human followers of [[{{Plaguemaster}} Nurgle]]. Again, their offensive potential was basically nil (lacking even a HolyHandGrenade style attack) so this latter point was a formality simply out of principle anyhow. They were one of the few rays of light in that GrimDark WorldHalfEmpty.
* The brazillian setting called Tormenta has two goddess (one of life and other of peace) that impose just that restriction, the life goddess however does allow you to "heal" the dead.

** He killed someone with the DHARMA van in the season three finale. Hell, the only characters who have never threatened to or actually killed anyone are Miles and Walt.
*** If I remember correctly, Miles has been a jackass throughout the run, and Walt has [[InformedAbillity been informed to do bad things]].

* In {{Firefly}}, [[TheMedic Simon Tam]] tries to be this, and most of the time is successful, but occasionally is pressed into TechnicalPacifist (''[[CrowningMomentOfFunny "Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?" "I told him to sit down..."]]'') and rarely into ReluctantWarrior (if it happens, it's to save another member of the crew. He typically never fights to protect ''himself''.)

* Even though he's a special forces soldier/secret agent, Solid Snake from the MetalGearSolid is a dedicated pacifist. Depending on how you play the game, he kills a lot to very few people, but during cutscenes he makes it very clear that he tries to keep casualties as low as possible. However, he recognizes that sometimes killing some bad people is the only way to keep them from killing a lot more innocent people. But he despises what he has to do and makes no attempt to hide his contempt for people who think there's anything heroic or glamorous about a soldiers work. He doesn't have much hope that there's a life for him after being a soldier, but rather continues doing his dirty work, than have someone else getting forced to do it.
* In {{Halo}}-series, Huragok - better known to humanity as the Engineers - a Covenant member species that views killing of even pests as wrong. Ironically enough [[spoiler: one of them, called "Lighter Than Some" was the first Covenant species to kill a human; Said human was trying to kill its best friend Dadab, a grunt, after the party had assaulted his ship in search of Forerunner artifacts. It was of course horrified of what it done.]] Huragok are a member species of the Covenant only by circumstances as they enjoy repairing and inspecting Forerunner technology, but are indifferent to nearly everything else and in fact have helped humans on numerous occasions by repairing their technology, including Master Chief's MJOLNIR -armors' shield system.

** This Swiss troper begs to differ. Switzerland has a military force and it's not as small as one would think (since we just have a population of about 8 million), but still ... conquer most of Europe? Maybe Liechtenstein or Luxemburg ...

** The Indian Independence movement only succeeded because The British was pretty much bankrupt after the World War II against Nazi Germany, and so didn't had the money or the manpower to remain in India, and India herself ended up with povetry, social injustice and wars even today. The U.S. Civil Rights movement didn't get so much success until they played the hard balls 1965-1968 at Watts and Washington and the 1989 revolutions only succeeded because the communist governments no longer had the support of Soviet Union and no military might on their own, unlike in China or North Korea.

* Lifeline from ''GI Joe'' refused to employ violence. On one occasion, he wouldn't even touch a rifle, even though it was being held out for him to grab and pull him out of a trap.

** The real Heero Yuy (not to be confused with the pilot that he was named after) created the "Total Pacifism" philosophy, and both King Peacecraft and his daughter Relena and Quatre's father adopted his beliefs.

** The real Heero Yuy (not to be confused with the pilot that he was named after) created the "Total Pacifism" philosophy, and both King Peacecraft and Quatre's father adopted his beliefs.

* In ''The Angel and the Badman'' (1947) Quirt Evans (JohnWayne) falls in love with Quaker Prudence Worth (Gail Russel) and foreswears his violent ways and quest to avenge the murder of his adoptive father. He almost backslides, but in the final confrontation with the man responsible, Laredo Stevens, Prudence convinces Quirt to lay down his gun. [[spoiler: Stevens then attempts to shoot Evans, who would have been killed if not for the timely intervention of the sheriff (Harry Carey, Sr.).]] Some critics say that here Prudence Worth succeeded where her co-religionist Amy Kane (Grace Kelly) would fail in ''HighNoon''. The pacifist theme this Western is a bit unexpected given John Wayne's popular image, but he not only played the lead, but also produced it.

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Waterbenders and Airbenders as a rule only use their bending for defends purposes, unless ''extremely'' provoked. The Avatar himself, Aang, is very vocal about his nonviolent beliefs, and in the season finale when it came down to either [[spoiler:killing Fire Lord Ozai or being killed, he decides to TakeAThirdOption and disable Ozai's firebending instead.]]

*** To be brutally frank, most of Europe isn't a very tough proposition these days. Don't underrate yourself.

* Lifeline from ''G. I. Joe'' refused to employ violence. On one occasion, he wouldn't even touch a rifle, even though it was being held out for him to grab and pull him out of a trap.

** There are also spells that can force creatures to become this, the most obvious being [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=190574 Pacifism]]. Although the right creature, such as the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=191102 Prodigal Pyromancer]] can still hurt people, they just don't do so through combat. A more complete method would be [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=191102 Faith's Fetters]], as it stops creatures from attacking, blocking, or using abilities that do anything except add mana to your mana pool. Even then, there's [[strike: probably]] always a way.

*** You're definitely right, Christianity as a religion is definitely not an actual pacifist, however it is an ideal to strive toward for all of it's members. God however [[{{Understatement}} is a different story]]. TheBible as a whole makes it very, ''very'' clear he can do whatever he damn well want. (barring that he keeps his own promises)

** There are various values of truth to this. The first gentile to become a Christian was a Roman Centurion, and Jesus commanded that his disciples go armed. Not to mention large swathes of the Old Testament about the valid uses of force. Christianity isn't (or ought not be) militant, but seeing it as purely pacifist requires [[HandWave handwaving]].