Okay, so today in our Socratic Seminar class, we talked about violence and I was deeply annoyed by most of the comments that were made about it. I don't if I see violence different than others so...help me figure this out.
Okay, so our teacher asked, "Is violence okay?" I immediately thought 'yes,' but my classmates were like, "No! It's wrong! It should never be used! It's never okay!" And I just sat there and thought, 'OK, I don't really agree with that.' I didn't say that in class because in the area that I live, I would've gotten a ton of people chewing me out for my thoughts. Anyways, I believe violence is justified when someone is aggressively attacking you, and in war. If you fight someone back for attacking you, would you get in trouble? No! Because if you just stand there and do nothing, you're going to get hurt worse than trying to fight back. In war it's okay because some things have to be settled that way. Even in religious doctrine they accept it for certain purposes (I think the majority of the people reading this would be familiar with the Jews in the Bible fighting their way into their promised land-Israel).
Also, I stand by the quote, "All is fair in Love and War." That's when violence is good. But Violence is bad when it's the slaughtering of the innocent. Now you may question how violence is okay with love. Well, say someone starts harassing your (in a Male's case) wife, and won't listen to your pleads for the assaulter to stop. So, you punch him to get away from your wife. I also stand by violence and love for other reasons that most people wouldn't understand until I published my book.
Anyways, I think some people get a little to carried away with the whole 'peace' thing, and don't understand that sometimes violence can help bring peace, cause really, could anyone have stopped Hitler by trying to talk to him?
8 comments:
Like I've said elsewhere, war represents the basest things in humanity, and should be avoided at all costs.
However, even in war there are rules. Look up the Geneva Conventions or the UN Security Charter for examples.
I do agree, that self-defense is a permissible use of violence, but in most other cases I find it unnecessary.
What is your opinion on love and violence? I'm curious to know if you've expeirianced that way of life.
Have you heard of Jainism It has very strong opinions on the matter.(don't be turned off by the swastika, they had it before Hitler.)
Also, a certain quote comes to mind:
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Can you tell me where that comes from?
Yeah I've heard of them.
The bible. But then there's instances in the BOM and Bible where war is acceptable. Even in church history (The mountian Meadows Massacre) my anncestor John D. Lee lead the church against a bunch of mobs that were harrassing our church. At first, he was excomuunicated and had his blessing taken away, but after his exucution, they realized what he had done was right, and gave everything back to his (blessings.)
See my response on my blog.
Also, the Mountain Meadows Massacre is not something to be proud of. Many innocent women and children were killed needlessly.
What'd you expect them to do? Stand around while everyone's persecuting and mobbing them? We weren't about to go quietly into the night.
No, they were immigrants. Peaceful immigrants. I don't know where you're getting the idea that they were a mob from. (Although I do seem to recall that they thought they were going to be slaughtering Indians instead.)
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