The Broader Implication of Peace Activism
The scope of peace activism has broader implications than simply advocating peace or assuming an antiwar stance. In fact, the implications of peace activism connect to a diversity of sociocultural movements. Charles F. Howlett* writes, "Peace seekers have connected their actions to broader social and political concerns like civil rights, feminism, socialism, and ecological safety."
Peace activists are often fervent advocates for other social movements. Their identification as peace activists facilitates their ability to meaningfully contribute to other social movements because their ability to exercise tolerance, in attempting to mitigate conflict, facilitates the deliberative process of most organization.
Simply stated, the peace activist is specifically attuned to the plight of others. Peace activists can use their understanding of tolerance to negotiate peace as well as address the concerns of underrepresented parties.
The peace advocates may support the civil rights movement; in fact many abolitionists were advocates of peace. Peace advocates may support animal rights or ecological protection as well. Peace advocates are represented by both Democrats and Republicans and citizens from every corner of the Earth. In short, peace advocates are represented in nearly all social movements all over the world.
In discussing the broader implications of peace activism, it is important to recognize what the peace movement shares with other social movements. The peace movement and all the various forms of peace that comprise the movement are based on an acknowledged recognition of the destructive capacities of human beings, which is not to suggest, however, that all human beings will be destructive.
Human beings have a natural capacity for destructive behavior. As a child I remember reading William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, and to this day it remains my favorite novel. Without the supervision of adults, the boys go primal. They revert to the brutality that was masked by their schoolboy uniforms. They immediately establish a hierarchy and select the criteria for inclusion. They decide who’s included and who’ll be excluded.
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