Peace is Not the Absence of Defence

 

“Peace is Not the Absence of Defence”

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“We all have a right to offend and we all have a duty to be offended.”

— Sarah Pochin, Reform UK, July 23, 2025

This statement, bold and controversial, touches a fundamental nerve of modern democracy: the fragile boundary between liberty and harm, between expression and aggression.

Yet rights come not only with duties—but with risks, and in some cases, resistance.

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On Tyranny and Civil Response

A dictatorship does not begin with tanks in the streets.

It begins when governments stop representing the people and begin suppressing dissent.

It escalates when policy enforcers—regardless of the uniform—act without public consent, relying on fear and disempowerment.

Historically, civil war emerges not from violence alone, but from its political orphaning—when no legitimate recourse remains for the People to be heard.

In such cases, each side deems the other “terrorist.”

And so a question arises, not as a call to arms, but as a test of principles:

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Three Moral and Legal Questions

Q1: If a person—uniformed or otherwise—smashes through your door with violent intent, do you have both the right and the readiness to defend your life, even to the point of lethal force?

Q2: Is it a human right to defend oneself to the death against any aggressor?

Q3: If a coordinated non-state self-defence organisation arose to protect individuals from perceived authoritarian overreach, would that be resistance—or would it be terrorism?

These questions are not rhetorical. They challenge where we draw the line between justice and survival, between law and life.

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Legal Disclaimer

I do not promote violence.

I promote peace, non-violence, and the essential dialogue of democracy.

I am an independent historian collecting the views of everyday people on matters of public concern in a time where free speech is visibly eroding under the weight of centralised control.

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Policing by Consent

Theresa May once said:

“The way we are policed in Britain is by consent.”

But do people still consent?

When community trust in law enforcement diminishes, law itself becomes perceived as an occupation—not protection.

The deeper issue is not the police alone, but the policymakers behind them, and whether their decisions serve the people—or the party.

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Echoes of Fascism, Today

We remember how fascism rose—incrementally, bureaucratically, legally.

Today, state-sanctioned violence against civilian populations is visible in multiple nations, including those the UK supports. History is repeating—but in digital time.

The fragility of peace is becoming clearer to a growing number of people. So is the recognition that stability must be defended—not assumed.

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The Global Mind

The spread of digital communication has ignited a shared planetary awareness.

Some see this as a “white Western gift.” But its true power is not technological—it is psychological.

We are witnessing a new kind of consciousness: the realisation that foreigners are neighbours, and that the fate of the world reflects back into each household.

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Tribal Instincts and Human Evolution

Our natural reaction to threat is tribal:

“Us vs. Them.”

This is not evil—it is biological. But what we do with that reflex determines the moral character of our societies.

Where tribalism breeds nationalism and fear, humanitarianism tames it with dialogue, empathy, and law.

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Globalism, Multiculturalism, and the West

Contrary to the fears of many, globalism—at its core—is a Western idea, an extension of Enlightenment thought:

“All humans are equal. All deserve rights.”

Multiculturalism is the natural outcome of that vision.

But it will only survive if it is guided by the recognition of both difference and shared value.

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Final Thought

Peace is not pacifism.

Peace is the refusal to surrender one’s humanity in the face of violence, whether state-sanctioned or rogue.

To defend the rights of the individual and the dignity of the collective requires courage—not complacency.

In this era of rising uncertainty, our task is not to fight, but to stay conscious and prepare, so that if and when we must resist, we do so not in rage, but with reason.

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PART 3: SOURCES & INDEX

Here is a list of cited and relevant contextual sources:

Title	Author
Two Treatises of Government	John Locke
On Tyranny	Timothy Snyder
The Origins of Totalitarianism	Hannah Arendt
Discipline and Punish	Michel Foucault
Civil Disobedience	Henry David Thoreau
The Righteous Mind	Jonathan Haidt
The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind	Gustave Le Bon
The True Believer	Eric Hoffer
The Concept of the Political	Carl Schmitt
The Sovereign Individual	James Dale Davidson & William Rees-Mogg