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To Be Violent and Not to Be Violent

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Submitted By Sleagc
Words 1289
Pages 6
Samuel Cruz
Professor Charlie Veric
Literature 13
24 July 2014
To Be Violent and Not To Be Violent The 1986 People Power Revolution in the Philippines, Occupy Wall Street, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Gandhi’s Salt March, and Martin Luther King Jr. are well-known examples of nonviolent movements. Although they are not completely peaceful, these movements have a cause and people did not use violence to solve the problem. But how are we supposed to deal with psychopaths randomly killing innocent people? In order to protect peace and order, authorized people (i.e. military, policemen) should use reasonable violence to protect those who are vulnerable. Violence and Nonviolence are indeed ways to solve conflicts within the society. In an article by Max Fisher (2013), he stated that political scientist Erica Chenoweth showed that nonviolent revolutions have been more successful than violent once because violence caused by the participants will only make the government use violence to fight back, and it will also discourage participants to join because of the danger of being harmed in the crossfire. The story “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez showed how the crowd already resorted to violence to make the Old Man respond to them; but even so, the Old Man remained nonviolent throughout the story. This is all right because the Old Man had no one to protect except himself. If you can tolerate a bit of violence without being violent in return, then that is good. But what if the Old Man had others to protect? Should he still remain nonviolent and let the crowd hurt them?
On the other hand, using violence without proper reason is very detrimental. In an article by Daniel Bovy on Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence, he stated that Adolf Hitler grew up having frequent contact with anti-Semitic people. This is probably why he hated Jews and expressed in later in his life through mass violence against them. Creating a “master race” by killing the “inferior race” through the world-famous Holocaust is a clear example of unreasonable violence.
The story “The Use of Force” by William Carlos Williams showed how people can bring about violence because of personal feelings, which usually results to unnecessary violence. Olson, the doctor, used brute force to open the child’s mouth; thus resolving the conflict of the story. However, it was stated that Olson could have waited an hour and resolve the conflict in a non-violent way, but he used violence anyway. Olson can relate to Hitler in a way that both of them used unreasonable violence. This violence is unreasonable and unnecessary because they brought harm to people without thinking deeply on how it would affect them. This is where proper violence might be useful – to put a stop to these things. If only the parents knew that Dr. Olson could have waited an hour before forcing the child’s mouth open, they would have stopped the doctor from hurting the child. Of course, they would have to use reasonable violence to stop doctor in his violent state and protect their child.
The proper and reasonable use of violence is to protect people from those who really intend to use weapons to bring harm to their targets. Peter van Uhm (2011), Chief of the Netherlands Defense Staff, said in one of his talks that he “chose the gun as an instrument to stop those who would do evil and to protect the vulnerable”. In other words, violence, if used reasonably by competent authority, is sometimes the only way to resolve certain conflicts that have grown into cases uncontrollable by non-violent means. The Virginia Tech Shooting is one of the many examples of violence uncontrollable by nonviolent means. In an article by Hauser and O’Connor (2007) on The New York Times, they stated that the shooting ended up with thirty-two students dead and many others injured. Another example is the Erfurt Massacre where, according to an article in The Guardian (2002), a former student who was expelled opened fire in his school and killed eighteen people which includes his former teachers and some of his fellow students. Another school shooting, according to Fox News (2005), took place in Red Lake High School. In this massacre, ten people were killed including the student gunman himself. In these cases, can we still say that nonviolence is the best way to resolve such conflicts, and that the policemen were wrong for intending to use their weapons to subdue the violent gunmen? The zebra storyteller in the story “The Zebra Storyteller” by Spencer Holst faced a similar problem. His fellow zebras were being killed by a Siamese cat disguised as a lion. How did he respond to this? Like how the previous examples were put to stop, it was through reasonable violence.
The stories discussed in the previous points showed how violence and nonviolence are utilized in ending conflicts in society. In certain cases, reasonable violence is more efficient, especially for cases like school shootings. Unlike the story “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez, where the Old Man had no one to protect but himself, the zebra storyteller had his fellow zebras to defend. This is why it was necessary for him to kill the Siamese cat. In contrast to the story “The Use of Force” by William Carlos Williams, where Olson had the option to wait an hour, the zebra storyteller had no choice but to act immediately; because if he stalled, the Siamese cat might have mutilated him like the other victimized zebras.
Finally, we ask ourselves the question, “Why does unreasonable violence, like school massacres and many others happen?” Dr. Bruce Perry, in his article in Scholastic, stated that violence increases “when we become desensitized to death or killing”, and “when we have easier access to handguns” among others. In order to prevent future violence, we should limit our exposure to violence and tools of violence so we do not become violent ourselves. Self-control is vital. However, should there be another case where people become violent and uncontrollable by nonviolent means, reasonable violence should be utilized by competent authority to protect the vulnerable from the violent thus solving the conflict.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Austin, Curtis. “On Violence and Nonviolence: The Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.” Mississippi History Now. Mississippi Historical Society, Feb. 2002. Web. 13 Jul. 2014.
Bovy, Daniel. “Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)”. Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence. Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence. 27 Feb. 2009. Web. 25 Jul. 2014.
“EDSA, Elsewhere: The 1986 People Power Revolution.” Official Gazette. Official Gazette, Feb. 2014. Web. 13 Jul. 2014
Fisher, Max. “Peaceful protest is much more effective than violence for toppling dictators.” Washington Post. Washington Post. 5 Nov. 2013. Web. 24 Jul. 2014.
Fox News editors. “High School Shooting Spree Leaves 10 Dead”. Fox News. Associated Press. 22 Mar. 2005. Web. 24 Jul. 2014.
Hauser, O’Connor. “Virginia Tech Shooting Leaves 33 Dead”. New York Times. New York Times. 16 Apr. 2007. Web. 24 Jul. 2014.
“Martin Luther King.” British Broadcasting Corporation. British Broadcasting Corporation, n.d. Web. 13 Jul. 2014.
Perry, Bruce, M.D., Ph.D. “Why Does Violence Happen?” Scholastic. Scholastic, n.d. Web. 13 Jul. 2014.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings.” SparkNotes. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 13 Jul. 2014.
TED Conferences. “Why I Chose a Gun.” Nov. 2011. Online video clip. TED. TED Conferences LLC, 13 Jul. 2014. <http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_van_uhm_why_i_chose_a_gun/>
TEDxAmsterdam. “Peter van Uhm: Guns for World Peace.” TEDxAmsterdam. TED Conferences LLC, n.d. Web. 13 Jul. 2014.
The Guardian eiditors. “Eighteen Killed in German School Shooting”. The Guardian. The Guardian. 26 Apr. 2002. Web. 24 Jul. 2014.

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