“The Many Sides of the Same Coin"

Not your Typical Article About Violence

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By: Kaitlin Dana Law-ay

People always say that “there are two sides of the same coin” everything has positive and negative sides. According to Farrah Fawcett “Everything has positive and negative consequences”. That’s just how the world works in order to keep the balance and prevent chaos. Consequences are results of an action, for example if you would choose to argue with your friend over something so shallow you might end up destroying your friendship and losing your friend but, if you would just let it go and act maturely you would end up understanding your friend much better and keep your friendship. As you can see whatever our choices or actions may be, there would always be consequences and most of the time if we would act rashly, we might just end up with the negative ones.

I am here to talk about one of the most controversial issues in the world, violence. If you guys didn’t know, it is the behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. Violence over the years has become increasingly interpersonal and tied with criminal activity, particularly in urban areas. Violence is always presented as a negative behavior with the intention to hurt someone, but is violence really that bad? Does it not have a positive side to it? Or do positive effects of violence exist? If we would observe violence and aggressive behavior alone, like an isolated action without context, then it would always be negative, there just seems to be no way which it could possibly be positive. But I am here to talk about the opposite, to convince all of you that sometimes violence makes the law and order around here, that violence prevents society from collapsing, and that violence is distinct from cruelty because, it can exist completely independently from suffering or malice.

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There are a lot of articles about how people resort to violence because of anger, extreme emotions, jealousy, and of course it could be that all their lives they have been influenced by negative factors, such as their parents having serious physical fights, violent actions continued to be played on TV, shooting and combat video games, etc. All of these are true, children are really easy to influence and manipulate and they would think that it is normal if they see it happening every day. But it is also important to consider that not all the time the purpose of doing violent actions came from a negative aspect. Some people actually resort to violence mainly for self-defense. “Man uses a gun to shoot a burglar in order to protect his family”, “woman uses tear gas to get rid of an attacker”, “crowd attacks a man for sexually abusing a woman”, etc. Those are examples of the self-defense news or articles that we see every day in which violence and aggressive behavior was necessary. The common law of justification defenses, by contrast, provides a well-established legal structure for determining when one person may justly use force against another. (Harmon, 2008). Whether we like to admit it or not, if not all then most of us have done violent actions in our lives. Either because of our uncontrollable emotions or just purely out of self-defense.

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The law is important to the society for it serves as a norm of conduct for citizens. It was also made to provide for proper guidelines and order upon the behavior for all citizens and to sustain the equity on the three branches of the government. It keeps the society running. Without law there would be chaos and it would be survival of the fittest and every man for himself. Not an ideal lifestyle for most part. The law is important because it acts as a guideline as to what is accepted in society. Without it there would be conflicts between social groups and communities. (Tiwari, 2018). Those who keep the law and order around here are the policemen, they arrest criminals and keep every countries’ law obeyed by the citizens. As I have said before I am here to show the positive sides of violence to convince all of you that violence makes the law and order around here. Why do you think policemen have guns? Or tasers? Or that black baton that security guards always carry around? It is to protect us from criminals and terrorists who try to cause harm and disrupt our peace. Policemen have the right to use force if necessary, this just shows that sometimes people resort to violence because there is no other way. It is either to kill one to save all or just sit there, watch everyone die and witness the destruction of society. An example of this is the “Drug war” that is currently happening in the Philippines. A lot criticized the ways of the President saying that “violence is never the answer” or that “many are killed because of this”, but haven’t we already realized that if we won’t exterminate the drug dens, drug pushers, and drug lords none of this would stop? It would just continue to spread until everyone in the world is influenced by drugs that would drive everyone insane and cause major casualties. “Kill a few to save millions” that is what matters. 

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Now enough with all these talk about how violence can be justified when it comes to defense. Let’s discuss another perspective about the topic, the part wherein violence is different from cruelty. James Whalen describes violence as “the display of destructive power”. Volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and other natural disasters are extremely violent, but lacks the intent to be cruel. It’s all natural none of these disasters where made intentionally or were controlled by anyone to inflict harm. Pure violence, inspires a sense of wonder and alertness which makes us feel more alive. This is the reason why there are so many TV shows or movies that expresses violence. Violence believe it or not is actually a wonderful medicine for it increases our alertness, fosters a healthy hormonal profile, builds emotional integrity by encouraging self-examination and makes us feel less fragile. 

      All in all, we can say that violence has many sides to it and is viewed differently by each of us. Violence is always used because someone’s idea of what is good and best requires it. ISIS, in its twisted mind, is violent to make the world better. Police are brutal to some to protect and serve the many. People always say that problems cannot be solved by the use of force, that violence is never the answer. But whether or not violence is the answer depends on the question being asked. According to Malcolm “It’s not violence when it comes to self-defense, it’s called intelligence” and I think that just speaks for itself. 





References:
“What is violence?” Retrieved from https://www.saferspaces.org.za/understand/entry/what-is-violence
Collin Noll (2009) Positive Effects of Violence Retrieved from https://www.saferspaces.org.za/understand/entry/what-is-violence
Kathryn Seifert Ph.D. (2011) “Why do people resort to violence?” Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/stop-the-cycle/201112/why-do-people-resort-violence
James Whalen (2018) “Why Violence is Good” Retrieved from https://medium.com/@henziran/why-violence-is-good-but-not-good-enough-3605a8348c42
Marty Troyer (2016) “When Violence is a Good Thing” Retrieved from http://mennoworld.org/2016/06/22/the-world-together/when-violence-is-a-good-thing/
Benjamin Ginsberg (2013) “Why Violence Works?” Retrieved from https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-Violence-Works/140951
Kishan Tiwari (2018) “Importance of Law in Society” Retrieved from https://legaldesire.com/article-importance-of-law-in-society/
Bill Arends (2009) “Is There Such a Thing as Positive Violence?” Retrieved from https://billarends.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/is-there-such-a-thing-as-positive-violence/