What's the origin of the word "peacenik?" Has it always been pejorative?
If it's not inclusive— or neutral— is this a word we want to keep— or throw out?
It seems to belong to another time— and perhaps should be filed away with words like "beatnik," "commie," and "hippie."
These days, referring to "peaceniks" appears to be a way to imply that you don't approve of a vast number of the people sitting to your left— and that they quite possibly don't even belong in the Democratic Party. Kevin Drum has referred to us as children.
Now that the election is more or less over— and our common goal of unseating Bush is no longer pressing— I am finding I have very little in common with many writing for the Democratic Party. We are not moving toward any "center" that I can support— the Right has moved the discussion so far into their field, any movement in that direction, now, is much too great a sacrifice of principle. *
I don't know if the Green Party could hold all of the Progressive Democrats or if we need a new party, but something has to change— the Democratic Party will soon be losing its soul.
Where can anti-war progressives of the Democratic Party meet where we will not always be shouted down or ignored? (As welcoming as Eschaton can be, there is still too much defensiveness there, and it is frustrating that there is so little discussion about nonviolent foreign policy alternatives.)
Working for peace (and justice) without resorting to military solutions is a noble endeavor. I am tired of being derided for emphasizing the possibility and its importance.
For the record, I did not support the invasion of Afghanistan— and it transpired exactly as I expected it would. I was not wrong in my opposition to a Bush-led military invasion.
There are always alternatives to dropping bombs from the air.
— glassfrequency
* beware of republicans wearing DLC suits!
4 comments:
Thanks for saying that. I didn't realize how centerist my regular blogs were until I saw people dismissing pacifism out of hand.
I too opposed the invasion of afganistan. I too still think it was a bad idea.
I've never been comfortable embracing pacifism as a line in the sand "no war is ever justified", but I have also never thought that this got to the real insight that pacifists have. This insight begins with realizing that most people who say they only go to war as a last resort are at best fooling themselves. The insight leads to thinking that the whole idea of an "enemy" is the wrong way to think about the cause of evil and suffering in the world.
Join the Socialist Party USA.
http://www.sp-usa.org
A party for all people who want peace and humanity.
~zach
Here's the origin of the suffix: The suffix -nik is derived from Yiddish, where it is used to form personal nouns; it is ultimately from Slavic languages that were in contact with Yiddish. And here's a very unsatisfying cite to first usage: And the first use of peacenik was in 1965, derived from beatnik, though etymologists note that its earlier equivalent peacemonger was first used in 1808.
joe: -
Thanks for the Jim Walsh article, Eyes Wide Open
Most definitely, a kindred spirit-
"I don't know a single soul I could so easily reduce to a one-word explanation--but I'm working on it, and I'll try to have it ready for you by the end of this page. It's tough, though, because all I can think of is the group of friends I spent the day of the Reagan memorial with at a cabin in Wisconsin. Most of us spent the '80s hanging out in rock bars and bitching about Reagan, but, even though our roots are in punk rock (whose roots are more in line with the so-called hippie ethos than most latter-day punks would care to admit) and its various offshoots, more than 20 years later there was no group-think to be had. One friend admitted to bawling her eyes out when she saw a photograph of Nancy Reagan with her hand on her husband's coffin--a strain of empathy I and a few others couldn't muster.
Still, the main thing we have in common is a distrust of government, especially the current government, and a worldview that is more dove than hawk. We fall under no particular demographic umbrella; to call the lot of us (singles, parents, couples, musicians, librarians, dentists, kids) hippies or peaceniks serves only to identify us as the enemy within."
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