Violence

“Peace is the only battle worth waging.” - Albert Camus

You can’t turn on the news without seeing reports of violence. Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine. Hamas kidnapping and murdering civilians. Thousands of Palestinian non-combatants killed. School shootings. Road rage. Mass killings. Sexual assault.

Violence isn’t new. Humans have been killing each other as long as we’ve been human and before. Our interconnected world with access to news 24/ 7 can make it seem like violence is new, but it’s not.

Because violence has always been with us, some say that nothing can be done about it. Violence is in our genes, they say. We’re Killer Apes. Homo necans.

I disagree.

The animal we call human is more than its genes. Unlike other animals, our behavior is driven by more than instinct and environmental conditioning. We have the capacity to overcome these influences. We have autonomy. 

This isn’t just theory. We’ve been shown alternatives to violence by visionaries such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Through their examples, we’ve seen that there are successful non-violent solutions. Violence isn’t our only option.

I’m not a pacifist, and I’m not saying that violence is never the answer. History has shown that, at times, violence is necessary. Slavery in the U.S. would never be eliminated through parliamentary measures as it was in the British Empire. The Axis powers would never have been defeated by non-violent protests. And an individual has the right to use violence to defend themselves, if necessary.

However, if we don’t start applying non-violent alternatives to more of our conflicts, our species’ future is bleak. Today, one person with a modern firearm can slaughter dozens of people in just minutes. Modern armies can kill thousands in a day. One nuclear device can kill millions. And all of the nuclear devices of the world’s nations combined can wipe human civilization off the face of the planet.

Conflict is an inevitable part of life. Violence doesn’t have to be.