Facs
Transcript
let them work, not to overcome existence – this can never happen, in time and space – but to balance the saving power against the demonic powers. And in order to do this, a type of pacifism can occur, in groups and individuals, which can be called symbolic pacifism, namely individuals or groups resigning themselves, or for their group, of the application of compulsion; not of power – that would mean non-existence – but of compulsion. These symbolic pacifists – as I would say the Quakers are, in their basic principles, and the Church always must be, as church, even if it doesn’t demand pacifism legalistically of the state; and individuals who, as conscientious objectors, point to the ultimate unity of everything which is alive, but do not make a law out of it. Now this is a third form, and a form of which I only want that it wouldn't disappear from the surface of the earth, and not from the surface of this country which was on a wrong way, in the period in which legalistic pacifism was predominant, but which now should not go to the other extreme to a simple affirmation of military power, as it sometimes seems to be, in political utterances of the leaders of this country. But there should always be the symbolic representatives of the eternal peace in some individuals and some acts in which they represent this reality.
Now I think this makes it clear what one could say in the relationship of such a problem. And I would believe that this is true of many other problems too. This brings me to a last consideration in this whole lecture, which in some way is supposed to sum p [sic.] up this whole lecture [i.e. course of lectures]. I believe that in many of you the question is, consciously or