'People are capable of atrocity but they can also change.' Photo: by Mykola Makhlai on Unsplash
Wars of words: Stephen Cox explores through fiction
‘The cogs in the real war machine are human.’
The pacifist case is based on the belief in redemption, and that the way of non-violence has power to change the human heart. But systems of aggression can be very resistant to such a change. Even Mohandas Gandhi is said to have questioned whether non-violent resistance to Hitler would have worked.
We use stories to make sense of things, and to explore. In my books, flawed humanity encounters two alien species. Cory is an alien child cast away on a primitive, violent world called Earth. He belongs to a people who are gentle, with no word for – or even concept of – war. Meat, combat, and starvation seem horrific to him. More empathetic and communal than humanity, in his society violence is rare, individual, and seen as a treatable sickness. Some wide-eyed humans claim that Cory’s people live in something very close to a state of grace.
The other species destroyed the starship that Cory was on. They are self-replicating machines, implacably opposed to all organic life. Characters speculate that they were once tools and servants who overthrew their creators. Now they roam through the cosmos, making planets uninhabitable. Furthermore, it’s not clear whether they have any individuality, or any consciousness whatsoever.
We are called to a life without war or preparation for war. I created an enemy it is OK to hate, against whom aggression is acceptable as no alternative is available, against whom Cory’s people can harden their hearts. The war system is often compared to an implacable machine. But the cogs in the real war machine are human. People are capable of atrocity but they can also change.
In Europe and beyond, from 1918 onwards, there were many peaceful steps not taken by which disaster could have been avoided. The same is true since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now a war is underway and Quakers will debate how best to aid the afflicted and support those brave Russian voices against the war. Some of us support economic weapons in the hope these will affect only the leadership without broader suffering. I hope we will be thoughtful about what we preach to the people of Ukraine from our comfortable sofas.
I joined the Society admiring the Peace Testimony. Every fibre of my body is revolted by war. Faced with the reality in 1939, some Quakers and other pacifists picked up the sword. Scientist Freeman Dyson (who wasn’t a Quaker) went from pacifism to Bomber Command. What our peace testimony cannot be is inertia.
Stephen’s Our Child of the Stars, the first of two novels, is available now in paperback. Our Child of Two Worlds, the second, will be released on 31 March.
