The belief that violence solves anything?

I hear people say that they could solve the worlds problems or any sort of local ones if they could be allowed to beat/maim/kill people they find offensive or feel are the cause of the problem.

After observing this I truly do believe that we have been taught wrongly of course that violence is the answer to anything you can't solve with words.

To our own detriment to say the least.

Your thought on it?

Setting humans aside, there is much violence in the animal kingdom. Animals who are adept in using violence to protect a territory and its young are generally acting out of instinct born of necessity.

Humans are just another species of animal. Instead of calling our social circles a pride, pack, den, and so on, we call ourselves a society. We have spanned the globe finding and setting up the boundaries of our territories and those who live within a territory are encultuated into or otherwise agree to adhere to a social contract particular to that territory.

In other words, the ability of humans to recognize that their greatest strength lay in numbers, more than in the intelligence or ingenutiy of a few individuals, has allowed us to create huge societies but has not allowed us to beed out the survival instinct of protecting or violently defending our territories and procuring more in which to expand.

Some may claim that our intelligence sets humans above all animal species, yet we fail to recognize that we have simply formed much larger, more elaborately configured, highly complex, hierarchical structures of prides, dens and packs.

Do you think it's possible to breed out instinctual aggressiveness/violence? Would any country really want to do that?

Do you think it's possible to be educated enough to manually override instinctual tendencies and still project them when needed?

The reality of the situation is that we (the USA)don't want to diminish violent tendencies and I expect the vast majority of countries feel the same way. With populations exploding and natural resources becoming more limited the best options seem to be colonization or war.

As for any two cultures being able to solve thier differences with words... think of Palestine and Israel and the generations of violence between them. Do you still think humans are so evolved that words alone can overcome our violent natures? Do you think any single nation wants to be the first to attemt it?

Just as a side-bar... do you consider it violence when we hurt ourselves in order to punish others? Is it violence when a person takes on the role of martyre? Do you think that a hunger strike is a peaceful form of protest?

We are still animals, evolution really is a slow process.

i'm a person who believes in "treat others as you'd expect/like to be treated".
that being said, there are some peoples of the world that use violence to spread their messages. those people do not respond to peaceful measures of problem solving.
IMO these people who use violence need to be taught a lesson in order to show them that their actions are unacceptable. retaliation with similar force however will not teach them anything, they'll simply rise to the occasion. the only way to teach these people a lesson is to use a show of force so severe that it strips from their minds any inkling of continuing their course of action. unfortunately, most people don't have the stomach for such shows of force.
i'm not saying that we should a-bomb every uprising, but fighting a 10 year war that has yet to resolve anything obviously doesn't seem like a correct course of action either. and i doubt that sitting in circles holding hands and singing kumbaya is going to get anybody to lay down their weapons.

sometimes you have to do horrible things to achieve great things.


. . .

Sometimes one might have to resort to violence in order to stop
defensively a criminally violent person/group who is attacking you.

violence begets violence

violence solves nothing, though in limited doses I think it is necessary for public safety as in the restraint of those who would do violence to others as a temporary solution

there is no short term answer to end violence that I can think of as it will take a decision from each individual to choose non violence

Violence can solve all kinds of problems. In a world where power and conflict exists, violence must also exist. It is naive to think otherwise.

When someone controls you, and that control is destructive, when reason fails to move the person with power to release control, then violence is the answer.

This is the founding principle of our great nation.

If someone used the threat of violence to control you, keep you poor and that meant your children would grow up sickly malnourished, you seriously think violence when the last resort is not the answer?

Voilence creates Hatered, which means more trouble.
I can't change anyone's perspective, But

Is the United States more safer after Afgan & Iraq War. I'd say NO.

Imagine, if Japan decided to continue fighting after Hiroshima & Nagaski Bombings..... we wouldn't have had New York or California on our maps today.

Love & Forgiveness, solves all problems.
Gandhi's struggle for Indian Independence, is an example.

@ Bushidobillyclub - I agree, the world today is a bad place. But i think we made it bad and we can rectify that by teaching our children Love..

I am a pacifist, but I am also a realist.

I desire to harm no one, I carry a gun.

Life is dangerous, but its the only game in town.

violence violent violate,think of violence as a violation, it doesn't have to be physical or even verbal-a mother's mean undeserved frown cause she's tired, is a violation of a childs sense of wellbeing.eg./violence is seductive,contagious and can escalate very easily./religions and wars attempt to suppress it,regulate it,yes that sounds backwards-and i've never been a soldier,cop etc. so i can't pretend to understand even abit of what it's like to be in a violent profession. The main point is violence needs to be explored more, and we all need to look in the mirror, rambling...

oh and to answer your question, yes violence9well, physical aggression) is neccessary, it is a tool, depends on how and when it is used.

For some people it is the only way. For others it's never the way.

I don't know what makes the difference for us on an individual level.

I abhor violence, can't watch it, listen to it.. be around it.
Literally makes me sick....

The Merry Minuet The Kingston Trio Words and Music by Sheldon Harnick -From their 1959 LP From the Hungry
They’re rioting in Africa (whistling)
They’re starving in Spain (whistling)
There’s hurricanes in Flo-ri-da (whistling)
And Texas needs rain
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans,
the Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs,
South Africans hate the Dutch AND

I DON’T LIKE ANYBODY VERY MUCH!!
But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud
For man’s been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud
And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off
AND WE WILL ALL BE BLOWN AWAY!!
They’re rioting in Africa (whistling)
There’s strife in Iran
What nature doesn’t so to us
Will be done by our fellow *man*---<*man* is sung off-key>

Source: http://lyrics-a-plenty.com/m/merry_minuet.lyrics.php


These types of questions seem to half formulated concepts. Why not ask, does non-violence ever solve problems, when the truth of it is, the question is anthropomorphic.

Language is how we reason, how we solve problems. Now, we can formulate an equation for a rocket engine, and then say, they are violent things, but they get the job done.

What a situation requires is discovered by reason, the means found necessary is not the reason.

Sometimes the question really resolves to this,

are we responsible for our own actions?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/nyregion/woman-burned-alive-in-brooklyn-elevator.html?_r=1

Every sane person should be armed. If this women would have been armed she may have had time to shoot her attacker before he had the chance to spray her with an accelerent and then light his moltov cocktail and throw it into the elevator.

The world is a dangerous place. It takes no hate to protect yourself.


Sure it would have been violent for her to shoot her attacker. But it would have solved that problem of an crazy f'er trying to light her on fire.

Oh now you're making me feel OLD. Because I remember that. Although if you hadn't included the references, I would have sworn it was a Tom Lehrer song. It ought to have been.

Ahh Spring is coming!

http://youtu.be/QNA9rQcMq00