warism means belief that war is justifiable in principle and can be justified in actual cases. It carries an Arena rating of 1238, earned across 69 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, warism ranks #900 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #3,539 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #6,727 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #9,286 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
Why “warism” is a great word
WARISM — [Noun] The belief that war is morally justifiable in principle and can be justified in actual cases. From war + -ism (suffix forming nouns of action or practice). Unlike pacifism (which holds all war to be a fundamental moral evil) or just war theory (which provides a specific, conditional framework for evaluating particular conflicts), warism is the broader, axiomatic acceptance of conflict as a legitimate instrument of human affairs. It is the quiet concession in a debate that turns from 'if' to 'when', the strategic dot on a map that is not a town but a target, and the grim certainty in the statesman's eye as he signs the declaration—the unspoken creed that history is often written by those willing to break the world.
Etymology
From war + -ism.
noun
- Belief that war is justifiable in principle and can be justified in actual cases.e.g.“The book opens with an examination of warism, the uncritical presumption that war is morally justified, even morally required.” — 1991, Patrick G. Coy, Review of From Warism to Pacifism: A Moral Continuum, by D. L. Cady. International Social Science Review, 66(4),, page 185:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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