Hm. Very true, I’m afraid. Anyway, “violence achieves nothing” is a useful heuristic, and in times of extreme need the use for violence will still impose itself: the meme simply puts up a mental “barrier of potential” that makes sure you really think hard of alternatives before resorting to it.
I tend to distrust ideas whose usefulness depend on not being too compellingly expressed.
If what I actually believe is that there are usually more valuable alternatives than violence, I endorse saying that as compellingly as possible, rather than saying that violence is never valuable no more compellingly than appropriate.
Hm. Very true, I’m afraid. Anyway, “violence achieves nothing” is a useful heuristic, and in times of extreme need the use for violence will still impose itself: the meme simply puts up a mental “barrier of potential” that makes sure you really think hard of alternatives before resorting to it.
I tend to distrust ideas whose usefulness depend on not being too compellingly expressed.
If what I actually believe is that there are usually more valuable alternatives than violence, I endorse saying that as compellingly as possible, rather than saying that violence is never valuable no more compellingly than appropriate.