The tragic moment we are going through is particularly propitious for broaching the beautiful subject of pacifism in class.
Here are some ways to do this, we hope they will be useful to you. I am going there in broad strokes, suggesting treatments by discipline, even if what I am proposing can sometimes be approached almost everywhere in the curriculum. I leave it to you to decide if what is suggested is suitable for your pupils or students, and how much time to devote to it.
Psychology. Paul Bloom’s recent work on morality in babies (Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil) are fascinating. They suggest that very young (before one year…), babies already show a sense of morality, which would be innate.
Here, for example, is a doll trying to climb a hill. A doll tries to harm him; another helps him. If the babies are then asked to choose one, almost unanimously they choose the helper.
To the sources of pacifism?
Philosophy. An important philosophical distinction concerns an absolute pacifism and a contingent pacifism, which is close to the theory of just war, which is — according to it — on certain express conditions (for example: just cause, aiming at peace, of last recourse, doing more good than harm, etc.).
Explaining this idea of just war will get people talking.
Then take the example of Bertrand Russell, a pacifist imprisoned during the First World War, but who will judge that Hitler must be fought during the Second.
Religion. The Sermon on the Mount and Buddhism will no doubt be mentioned. But do you know the Jains? These practitioners of Jainism, a singular and little known religion, are followers of an extreme form of non-violence called ahimsah. Vegetarians or vegans, they have almost nothing individually, except a broom to… avoid crushing insects while walking.
physics and history. August 2, 1939 was one of the most painful events in the life of pacifist Albert Einstein. Encouraged by fellow physicists, he signed a letter that day informing President FD Roosevelt (1882-1945) that Nazi Germany might well be developing an atomic bomb. This letter helped launch the project manhattan, led by Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), which was to lead to the manufacture of the first atomic bomb. Einstein took no part in the work of this project, from which he was kept apart and in almost complete ignorance.
In March 1945, he wrote another letter to Roosevelt, this time asking him not to use atomic weapons. On August 6 of the same year, a first bomb fell on Hiroshima; a second was to follow soon after, this time on Nagasaki. Einstein immediately condemns these drops, in his eyes useless and barbaric.
Lessons to learn?
Biology. What better time to return to this idea of altruism — of kinship, but also reciprocal (I’ll let you explain…) — which suggests that by nature, we are inclined to help each other?
This applies in those small groups in which humanity has long lived. But does the size of our societies explain what would be a decline in this reciprocal altruism?
Good discussions in sight.
politics and sociology. Max Weber suggested a distinction between an ethics of ends and an ethics of responsibility. The first can inspire individual pacifism, the possible costs of which will be essentially personal (prisons, moral condemnations, exile, etc.). The second commands a possible collective action decision in specific circumstances and with consequences for many.
Can we reconcile the two? How? ‘Or’ What ? Are there any dangers in sticking to the first ethic?
Means of action. The pacifist can advocate or resort to many means: protest, discuss, negotiate, refuse to cooperate, strike, boycott, exercise economic sanctions, sign petitions, make sit inpracticing civil disobedience, and even show a sheet on the news !
He can also fast. On this subject, tell the beautiful story of the pacifist and anarchist Louis Lecoin (1888-1971), fasting at the age of 74 to obtain recognition of the status of conscientious objector. In time it will be done.
We can also read the Einstein-Russell manifesto (1955) telling the touching story of his signature by Einstein, of which it will be one of the last gestures. This text ends with these words: “The call we make is that of human beings to other human beings: remember that you are of the race of men and forget the rest. If you succeed, a new paradise is opened to you; otherwise, you risk universal annihilation. »
One last reading. In 1932, an organ of the League of Nations, the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, suggested to Albert Einstein an exchange of letters on the war with the person of his choice. Einstein had accepted the proposal and appointed Sigmund Freud as correspondent.
The book based on it is called Why the war? (Shores). Freud writes there – and this is in my opinion one of the key passages – that “everything that works for the development of culture also works against war”.
Transmitting this culture is precisely one of the great roles of education.