A Meditation on Violence

 And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Matthew 11:12 KJV

Every physical and mental motion or action dislodges, dislocates, and destroys the inertia that it must overcome to act. Inertia is an enemy that only action can destroy. Motion, action, is always violent because only violence is capable of moving or acting against the negative force of inertia in the world. To act is to engage in violence to overcome inertia. To refuse to act is to allow the violence of inertia to overcome the self. Therefore, the issue is never whether one likes, dislikes, chooses, or declines to choose violence, but rather the further investigation of the nature of violence itself.

The violence of childbirth cannot be equated with the violence of cutting off someone’s head. Neither can the violence of building a house for a homeless family be equated with the violence of bombing a village to extract the minerals found therein. In the same manner, the violence of freeing oneself from a kidnapper cannot be equated with the violence of enslaving millions of people for their sale to the highest bidder. Nor is the violence of laying one’s life down for another comparable to taking the lives of innocents to demonstrate one’s power to do so. Thus, the false issue of violence versus “non-violence” must give way to the real issue: positive violence versus negative violence.

Positive violence is that powerful word or act that aims at the liberation of enslaved peoples, while negative violence is that powerful word or act that focuses on keeping enslaved peoples enslaved.

The perfect example of negative violence is hate—hate that selfishly takes, enslaves, kills, destroys, and steals from those who believe themselves to be powerless and vulnerable.

The perfect example of positive violence is love—love that gives itself unselfishly to free the last, least, and lost peoples enslaved by poverty, economic exploitation, and discrimination.

The motive, purpose, use and intent of violence determine whether it will be classified as positive or negative. Every thought, act or behavior that is motivated by hate is negative violence. Contrariwise, every thought, act or behavior that is motivated by love is positive violence.