Where Begins Violence? Daring A Deconstruction

Preventing injustice especially if it contains violence against weaker ones isn't a quixoticly mystified habit. It should be the natural reflex of each and everyone who follows the principles of human rights. No one is obliged or even able to collect all the crimes of violence which are happening - tragically too many are still committed. Therefore we tend to focus on a special sort of violence or a certain region where it occurs or a certain class endangered through it hoping for the time every single coordination group reports the successfull and lasting victory over violence so finally only the reasons causing it have to be fought.

Being a threatening tool of sway and usurpating power violence has some kind of fundament where it's gonna built up throughout human history. The armed force a regime for example uses against his own people to suppress a freedom movement belongs to the most unscrupulous ones cause it threatens the existence of the rulers' status quo, in nearly all cases lording over the population with the help of a corrupt, elitist minority embedded in the right positions. It's a coordinated and instrumentalized violence we, the representants of basic human rights, feel to fight against with all possibilities given to us. Same applies for oppression of minorities, religious groups, social underprivileged, elder generations, women, children .. and the closest circle consisting of work colleagues, fellows, friends and family members.

No one's getting full credibility demanding the end of violence against a certain group while beating his own children under the label of education. Real non-violence leaves the most effective impression exemplifying it to the others through one's own life. And real non-violent behavior contains also the historic compromise to tolerate - without supporting it - violent measures of rebellious fractures and/or third parties to prevent a humanitarian disaster including in the worst case a genocide. Was Rwanda preventable? Or Hama before? Barely, inter alia due to the development status of mass technologies in '82 and their global spread in '94. But today in each corner of our planet individuals are provided with handycams and smartphones, nearly always connected to the web and for this reason able to watch and record tendencies towards mass murder or similar cruelties.

Ok, I'm sure the overwhelming majority of us is not beating their kids for a bad school grade or their wives for coming home too late - my glass stays half-full.  But what about the more or less subtle forms of violence in our daily lives we are in the meantime mainly unconsciously exposed to?

Example 1: queues. Under the 'first comes first serves' aspect to be regarded as a source of subtle violent outbreaks - fascinatingly short after another cashier has opened. Sub-genre ski lift: an extraordinary place to study mass behavior. Not only if classic ski riders and boarders collide. Cross category bumper-to-bumper traffic jam: a place where every involved one's patience is been proven. Except to the last genre no lethal cases reportedly known by now.

Example 2: road traffic. No cliché, insightful reality, at least in Germany. The moment even truly peaceful natures becoming kind of taking everything a bit too serious - too fast, too slow, why is this douchebag in front of me turning to the left while blinking to the right etcetera etcetera. A tendency to aggression and therefore possible violent consequences. Lethal cases on a high level even if the yearly's collision rate is reduced to the proven cases of aggressivity.

Example 3: administrative offices. The number of violent assaults committed by frustrated applicants has increased in the last years. A disturbing trend where the civil servant is reduced to her or his position in the mind of the perpetrator. First cases causing severe injuries reported. Some offices have reacted now 'demilitarizing' work places and bureaus by keeping sharp, combustible or heavy objects out of the clients' reach.

Example 4: train and metro stations. Victims are mainly no longer individuals becoming 'ones of those' regarded as welcomed outlet for the exploding cocktail of reflected anger and frustration and boredom. Lethal cases in alarming regularity reported in the last years.

Of course acts of solidarity and togetherness are happening in the foresited places too; the readiness to help others is more than mentioning it worth, but the shadow of the deeds of some who've lost temporarily their self control will always subduct the energy of the good actions, even if they appear several times more, like the drop of oil which is able to contamine a huge ammount of drinking water.

Everything's linked up and many of it has to be discovered or simply brought back into the minds. The subtle violence is like the seedling while the mental and physical violence's expressed through the blades of grass ranking visibly up. We all want soon a non-violent world? Then we have to sharpen our view for the complete spectre of violence. Every attempt to end it in its' subtle forms is an attempt to scotch it. And every successful counter measure preventing or defeating it is like extracting the next level of violence the oxygen.

Living a complete non-violent life on all ranks and levels means neither an overburdening life as an enlighted devotee nor is it unrealistic. By focussing the awareness in every direction containing the potential for violence and by perceiving subtle violence as precise as perilous one we may soon be able to resist every seduction acting (un)consciously violent. No longer playing (un)willingly the 'Master And Servant' game. No longer feeding the beast instead of fighting it.

Maybe together with the consquent elimination of violence out of the homes, the neighborhood, the environment and finally the whole world the moral courage may increase again. Violent orientated human beings rely on the percentage of silencers and those looking away. The bigger the group of individuals becoming in a life threatening situation impassive the better for the delinquents. Tragical consequence of a growing lack of moral courage are situations in which minors broken into ice or fallen into seas hadn't been rescued although several dozens adults were standing around not able to react in the right moment. Even if our first emotions are beyond comprehension - one of the explanations for the phenomenon of the sudden collective inactivity is the decrease of the courage to stand up for one's beliefs.

And if anyone needs now still an argument: non-violence never hurts. Doesn't mean that a non-violent actor doesn't risk getting hurt through an attack of an offender unwilling to unarmed dialogue. Coming into the terrain of self defense. An own post worth ..