People who have had a military background
or who come from a rough neighborhood
frequently associate an attitude of nonviolence
with a personal lack of courage or, even worse,
cowardice.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I have never met anyone less violent than
myself. I am a blend of vanilla and milk toast.
I have never lost a fight my life either.
My objection to violence in any form is
intellectual in nature; it has nothing to do
with the physical realm.
If I have to defend myself I will do so, and
with vigor, but that solution is always my
last choice. I realized before I was 10 years
old that violence never settled anything really.
As soon as a conflict becomes physical all
reason goes out the window. The question
is no longer who is right or wrong, but who
is stronger or better trained. Unfortunately,
once reason ceases to hold the high ground,
morality also disappears from view.
Brinkmanship used to be an art form among
nations, when saber rattling meant exactly
that. Opposing forces were roughly equivalent
since the technological advantage between
stones and arrows was not that great. With
today's modern weaponry brinkmanship has
lost sway to brute force and military action
has become a euphemism for slaughter.
Today the old warning “you hit me and I'll hit
you back harder” no longer applies. Now if
you hit the US we will hunt you, your friends,
relatives, and fellow countryman down and
send a smart bomb up everyone’s ass.
That's hardly a fair fight.
So now, since US is clearly the biggest fist
on the planet, every other country must go
along to get along or die; either economically,
or we will simply blow them to smithereens.
My question is this. Will a world ruled by
Judeo/Christian theology become less violent
over time, or more? Weigh in on this folks.
Our children's future depends on our getting
the answer right.
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