Not recently but over a longer time-span I changed my view on violence.
As a youth I despised violence—both individual and collective—and in fact additionally any kind of emotional outburst. This was partly formed by a painful experience of violence. I believed that all conflict should be solvable peacefully by rational actors.
I was wrong.
The first inkling were arguments with my fiance that couldn’t be solved factually. I realized that the strength of shown emotions is a measure of the subjective importance of a topic. What is the right thing to do when one preferrs X and the other not-X? Weigh X by the subjective importance. How do you know the subjective importance? Often you don’t. You might try to attach numerical values but not everybody is so inclined and if—what does 0.5 mean anyway subjectively. How do you gauge that between persons? Answer: Via expressed emotions.
Other nails were the emotions and aggressions of my children. I could see first hand the successes and failures of aggression and sometime notable violence. I could try as I might rational arguments often just don’t cut through—even if they are understood. And they don’t work if the other party doesn’t cooperate.
And then I got into a situation where I used violence in an affect. I who had commited to never use it. I mocked ‘saint’ had failed my own standards. How could that be? I was in state of humilty and it took some time to get back to terms with my imperfections. It also told me something about being human.
Today I still don’t like violence and aggression and search ways to avoid and minimize it. But I’m no longer surprised by it and not only see its effectiveness but also the cases where it is the most rational choice. Compare this with Gains from trade: Slug versus Galaxy. Violence is just one way to realize the ‘cooperation’ of a much weaker opponent. ‘Fair’ isn’t always in the middle if both parties are unequal. And if a stronger party force the other party to give in that party can only hope that the stronger party has friendly values. We have seen enough unfriendly natural intelligence.
Not recently but over a longer time-span I changed my view on violence. As a youth I despised violence—both individual and collective—and in fact additionally any kind of emotional outburst. This was partly formed by a painful experience of violence. I believed that all conflict should be solvable peacefully by rational actors.
I was wrong.
The first inkling were arguments with my fiance that couldn’t be solved factually. I realized that the strength of shown emotions is a measure of the subjective importance of a topic. What is the right thing to do when one preferrs X and the other not-X? Weigh X by the subjective importance. How do you know the subjective importance? Often you don’t. You might try to attach numerical values but not everybody is so inclined and if—what does 0.5 mean anyway subjectively. How do you gauge that between persons? Answer: Via expressed emotions.
Other nails were the emotions and aggressions of my children. I could see first hand the successes and failures of aggression and sometime notable violence. I could try as I might rational arguments often just don’t cut through—even if they are understood. And they don’t work if the other party doesn’t cooperate.
And then I got into a situation where I used violence in an affect. I who had commited to never use it. I mocked ‘saint’ had failed my own standards. How could that be? I was in state of humilty and it took some time to get back to terms with my imperfections. It also told me something about being human.
Today I still don’t like violence and aggression and search ways to avoid and minimize it. But I’m no longer surprised by it and not only see its effectiveness but also the cases where it is the most rational choice. Compare this with Gains from trade: Slug versus Galaxy. Violence is just one way to realize the ‘cooperation’ of a much weaker opponent. ‘Fair’ isn’t always in the middle if both parties are unequal. And if a stronger party force the other party to give in that party can only hope that the stronger party has friendly values. We have seen enough unfriendly natural intelligence.