Justification of ViolenceViolence and the justification of it has been an issue for as long as theworld has been in existence. There are many conflicting opinions on the subject,many in favor and many opposing the idea. I am personally split on the issue; Ibelieve that in some cases, violence can be justified; however, I also believethat in others, it cannot be.
In my opinion, the only instance in which violence can be justified isself-defense. I believe that if an innocent person is attacked for some reasonand their life is put in danger, they have the right to fight back to savethemselves. How can a person let themselves be attacked and do nothing to helpthemselves survive? It’s almost unreasonable to believe that. There are plentyof situations that fit this example.
One of them is rape. If a woman is beingattacked and sexually forced to do something she did not consent on doing, shehas the right to fight back and prevent it from happening. Rape does not onlyinvolve sexual assault; there is much physical assault involved, also. Manywomen are held at gunpoint, knife, tied or beaten by their attackers, and thisis not right. Any woman under these circumstances should fight back and do whatthey have to do to save themselves before it’s too late. Other situations whichcall for justifiable violence, in my opinion, are robbery at gunpoint and anyother type of unprovoked violence.
Other than self-defense, I do not believe violence should be tolerated atany cost. Hitting children when they do something “wrong” is not justifiable. I believe that if a child does something their parents don’t want them to do,they should be taught not to do it anymore simply because their parents don’twant them to do it. But, I believe that when you hit a child when they dosomething wrong, they don’t repeat the action because they’re afraid of theconsequences, rather than understanding why they shouldn’t do it again.
Itgives the wrong impression on the child and teaches them that violence is okayif you’re trying to teach someone a lesson, so they carry this over into theirlives when they get older, and the chain of violence is never broken. War, in general, I believe, is ineffective. I think that it totally usesthe wrong reasons for countries to agree to compromise. It’s amazing thatbefore war, countries are totally against one another, yet after blowing awayhalf of each other’s population, they’re willing to talk.
It makes you think. I think that if countries would talk out their problems in a more peacefulmanner, they would much easier come up with plans that would include both oftheir needs and desires. I think the world uses war in the wrong way; they’rein wars to show their own power and prove themselves to the world. War is notonly bad because of those reasons. It is also negative because innocent men andwomen from the involved countries are killed.
Even if they couldn’t care lessabout what was going on, they are drafted to fight for their country. And manyof them die, which is really depressing, because they didn’t want to be there inthe first place. The government declares war, yet the citizens suffer theirdecision. Why don’t the Congressmen strap on some uniforms and get out on thefield and fight? If they’re the ones making the decision to fight, they shouldbe subject to the same consequences we are. They are determining the fate ofmillions of people, yet keeping themselves safe.
It’s unfair. Though I think that war isn’t justifiable, I still hold to my belief thatif we must fight in our self-defense, then we should. However, I don’t believewe should ever provoke another country to start a war, nor should we declare waron another country unless they have already started attacking and killing ourpeople. Two acts of violence that I have a split opinion on are both the deathpenalty and abortion.
I don’t believe that both are either totally wrong ortotally right. I think the death penalty is a good concept, because I think itmight scare some people away from committing any crime that would require itsuse. However, I don’t think it’s very effective because it doesn’t really teachthe person a lesson; they never have a chance to change. I think a life-longjail term would be much more effective, because the person would be forced tolive in a bad environment and suffer and realize that what they did was wrong,and this is how they have to pay for it.
Death doesn’t really teach themanything. I don’t support abortions, but I do understand that in some cases itis better to not have the child than have it and let it grow up in badconditions. Most teens who get pregnant consider abortions because they are tooyoung, too irresponsible, and don’t have the time or money to raise a child. And most of all, they don’t want the child.
If they were to have the child andraise it themselves, it wouldn’t grow up in very good care. The mother wouldn’tnecessarily put her child first, and it would probably end up getting raised bygrandparents. I think having the child and giving it up for adoption is betterthan abortion in most cases. It avoids the violence of abortions and gives thechild a chance to live in the world. Overall, I do not condone violence.
However, I do believe that it isjustifiable in some very few cases, mainly, self-defense. All other times, Ifeel it is unnecessary and differences can be worked out in other ways.Religion
