The Nature of the Peace Movement
By David Holcberg (Pioneer, February 13, 2003; Charleston Daily Mail, February 15, 2003; Daily Mining Gazette, February 22, 2003)

In her 1967 collection of essays titled Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal, Ayn Rand made some telling points about the nature of the peace movement, points which are as applicable and valid today as they were then.

"Observe the nature of today's alleged peace movements. Professing love and concern for the survival of mankind, they keep screaming that... armed force should be abolished as a means of settling disputes among nations, and that war should be outlawed in the name of humanity. Yet these same peace movements do not oppose dictatorships; the political views of their members range through all shades of the statist spectrum, from welfare statism to socialism to fascism to communism. This means that they are opposed to the use of coercion by one nation against another, but not by the government of a nation against its own citizens; it means that they are opposed to the use of force against armed adversaries, but not against the disarmed.

Consider the plunder, the destruction, the starvation, the brutality, the slave-labor camps, the torture chambers, the wholesale slaughter perpetrated by dictatorships. Yet this is what today's alleged peace-lovers are willing to advocate or tolerate--in the name of love for humanity."