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When is violence justified?
As terrorism and news of it dominates our informational lives more and more, people put forth the in-vogue ideas of non-violence and civil disobedience of Martin L. King and Ghandi. As everyone knows, those are two leaders who used non-violent resistance to change the status quo. But, often, many people erroniously feel that those are actions that can be graphed to any situation. It is important to note, that in India and the U.S. when civil disobedience was used, neither the Indians or the Blacks of the U.S. were being systematically destroyed. Yes, they were under hardships and at times targets of debased behaviour by individuals, but a government policy to destroy them was not in place. The urgency of life preservation was not gripping the population as a whole.
I would suggest that before people naively put forth King and Ghandi as examples to guide us, they should ask themselves if the Partisen Resistance fighters of WW2, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, or the resistance by American Indians, may serve as a more appropriate model. I would also ask, if John, who is not under threat of violence, is justified to use violence to save Peter, who is under threat of violence and may be unable to wield violence himself in order to put forth his claim against injustice being done to him?
Is violence the supreme monopoly of governments and their policing forces? Don`t individual humans have the right to violence as much as any disembodied org?
As terrorism and news of it dominates our informational lives more and more, people put forth the in-vogue ideas of non-violence and civil disobedience of Martin L. King and Ghandi. As everyone knows, those are two leaders who used non-violent resistance to change the status quo. But, often, many people erroniously feel that those are actions that can be graphed to any situation. It is important to note, that in India and the U.S. when civil disobedience was used, neither the Indians or the Blacks of the U.S. were being systematically destroyed. Yes, they were under hardships and at times targets of debased behaviour by individuals, but a government policy to destroy them was not in place. The urgency of life preservation was not gripping the population as a whole.
I would suggest that before people naively put forth King and Ghandi as examples to guide us, they should ask themselves if the Partisen Resistance fighters of WW2, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, or the resistance by American Indians, may serve as a more appropriate model. I would also ask, if John, who is not under threat of violence, is justified to use violence to save Peter, who is under threat of violence and may be unable to wield violence himself in order to put forth his claim against injustice being done to him?
Is violence the supreme monopoly of governments and their policing forces? Don`t individual humans have the right to violence as much as any disembodied org?