Ep 97 The Great Disarmament - The Great Disfarmament Part 9: Powder & Principles
Description
The Great Disarmament: Powder & Principles – When Conscience First Spoke
As gunpowder redefined the global balance of power, another force quietly emerged—conscience. This episode explores the 1600s to 1800s, when the rise of modern empires was met by the first organized refusals to fight. From the Quaker Peace Testimony and early abolitionist resistance to Enlightenment philosophers imagining peace as policy, we follow the voices who rejected war, empire, and extraction as the price of civilization.
We trace the moral origins of nonviolence through:
- The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and their refusal to bear arms
- The philosophical foundations of Utopia and early social contract theory
- William Penn’s peaceful treaties and anti-militarist governance
- The link between war, slavery, and the moral awakening that would influence Tolstoy, Gandhi, and King
Through these stories, we ask: When did peace stop being passive? And how did disobedience become a sacred act?
This episode is part of The Great Disarmament – The Great Disfarmament, a 14-part podcast series on the deep history of war, agriculture, and the movements to end them.
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