Violence Solves Nothing

This writer has stated in past post how he had to fight during his childhood.  All the way up through fourth grade, this writer was constantly getting in fights, usually through no fault of his own.  For those four years, this writer had to fight enemies, friends, family, strangers, big people, small people, and even girls.  After a two-year break from fighting (by going to private school), the writer returned to public school and the fights started up again almost immediately.  Honestly, it's a wonder how he grew up to be an adult with a (fairly) stable mind after surviving (and this writer means SURVIVING) being targeted by someone on a near weekly basis.

At the end of every fight, this writer was consistently told, "Violence solves nothing."  However, for this writer, violence solved everything.  It had to, because running away, telling adults, and trying to talk it out never did.

This writer remembers in sixth grade, a fourth grader followed him home and through rocks at him for a week.  This writer did his best Gandhi impersonation and took it.  Talking only made the boy tell this writer to shut up and kiss his ass (this is a fourth grader, folks.  That's public school for you).  Seeing it wasn't going to end unless he it, this writer brought his own rocks to the party and a stick to boot as well.  Not surprisingly, this resolved the issue quickly and this writer never heard from him again.

Then, there was a situation at a family reunion.  This writer was eleven or twelve at the time.  A distant relative kept assaulting this writer.  This writer tried walking away and asking him to stop, but the assault continued.  Everyone saw it and did nothing (all family members and mostly adults, mind you) and they saw this writer wasn't having fun.  Reluctantly, this writer picked up a phone cord and sliced his face open with it.  This sent him scrambling for the adults.  Fortunately, the adults realized this writer wasn't the bad guy, but why did it have to get that far before they did anything.  They watched this writer exhaust all his options until violence was all he had left.

Barring this writer's own personal examples. just open a history book and see how often a situation was solved through peaceful means.  World War 2 wasn't fought with water guns and water balloons (and Hitler wasn't in a talking mood).  It was fought with guns, grenades, planes, and bombs.  Heck, open the Bible (which pacifists live by) and see how violently people acted.  The Israelites knew when it was time to stop praying and start whupping some ass (and they go out to battle with scriptures, but swords).  Even Jesus Christ (the ultimate pacifist or so we're told) had a few disciples who would break a couple of heads when the need arose, because even he knew a good beating was the only solution sometimes.

Simply put, while we'd like to resolve things peacefully, that simply isn't always possible.  Despite being told violence solves nothing, a look at the past (and the present and future for that matter) shows that violence solves quite a few things.  The key is to accurately determine when violence is and isn't necessary.  Overuse violence and you'll will up in jail.  Underutilize it and you'll always be a victim.  Make sure it's a last resort, but don't take it off the table altogether

Until next time...