Casus Pax

Apparently, we all have a flight-or-fight instinct. I do not possess the flight part, so this choice is difficult for me. The trouble with only having the fight part is the risk of being constantly martial which is very limiting – if you always fight, ultimately you will lose. You will lose because there is always another battle, and constant warfare is exhausting. You will lose because you get stuck in the thought patterns battle and war and are unable to see a wider picture or alternative means to an end.

Yes, there are times when fighting back (possibly before being attacked) is the only pratical option, but militarism too often loses sight of the primary purpose of fighting. In a fight, the object is to end the fight as soon as possible. The object is to win, to stop them. Attack, much to the chagrin of the hawks in various political regimes, is supposed to be a way to stop fighting, not continue an endless attritive war. Militarism glorifies the ideals of a professional military class. It’s a useful attitude in the build-up to a war, but it is a nightmare when it comes to ending said war. If you value battle and martial prowess, if you glorify those who slaughter the enemy, you cannot also value peace and those who build common ground with the enemy.

This is part of the reason for the strong honour codes found in martial arts. In Wing Chun, which appears an aggressive technique at first, this is expressed as: “Strike when you should. Do not strike when you should not”, and “Be quick to end the fight.”

Where you have people who know how to fight, and also how to be injured in fighting (this is a distinct advantage of traditional unarmed martial arts over armed forms – you learn how to be injured while fighting very quickly, because you are sparring, not on a target range aiming at an inanimate dummy), you have people who know the value of not fighting, and of choosing when to fight.

I am all for defence under attack, and I am realistic enough to see the political and humanitarian arguments for opening a war (and fiscal… oh, just go watch The Mouse That Roared), but I am also aware these days of the bruises I have from training, and the survival value of running – if only to fight on my own ground. Because in the end, there is some truth to the idea that "Only a warrior chooses pacifism; others are condemned to it."  (Unknown)