Here's How A Pacifist Celebrates Memorial Day

This question originally appeared on Quora. Answer by Jon Davis.

What does you being a pacifist have to do with anything? You have an opinion. How does that change your obligations at all? Quite honestly we need to address the “you” in this question.

You say that you have respect for people who sacrificed for their country and ideals, then the very next thing you say is that you don’t respect what they believed in i.e. the rhetoric for wars.

It is as if are trying to say, “I respect them, even if they weren’t as smart as me.” If you want to honor someone, don’t lead off with, “I have a belief that I am so attached to that it prevents me from truly respecting them.” Instead, think about honestly the fact that these people joined for the single reason of furthering their nations’ interests. Show them the respect to ask the question honestly to yourself, “What if these people weren’t just of inferior stock? What if they were every bit as intelligent a human as me with just as rational beliefs as I have? What if they realized something I did not? What if I am wrong?”

Once you do that, you will realize that your belief that diplomatic sweetness is not the only answer, nor is it always the best one. More so than that, you’ll realize that most of these people like peace too, but have accepted a degree of risk in the hopes to ensure it for others. After that, you’ll accept that you and your beliefs really have nothing to do with why or how you should honor them. You should stand when the anthem plays at the ballparks. You should thank all the troops for trooping like they do. Then you should eat the special cake of the warmonger nation while making sure that you keep from sharing that thought from deep down in your heart of hearts that, while you appreciate the dead people’s zeal and fervor as admirable, you believe yourself to be their moral superior, because nobody’s asking.