A little bit of violence and trauma has a long impact. Most of us reading this have spent more time free from either being a victim of or perpetrating violent acts. Yet very few would argue that a constant, even hypervigilant threat of violence is unnecessary in our lives to keep us safe from being victims of violence seemingly at any moment.
The fact that I am considering these matters as I reach an age when I grow less impulsive and prone to behaving aggressively may give my arguments less force figuratively.
Would it carry more weight for a Sumo wrestler in his prime to advocate for pacifism? If James Bond were suddenly to embrace Thoreau and Gandhi, eschewing further murderous action, would that cause others to change their minds?
As I write this I am sitting in a place where I have every expectation of safety physically and emotionally. The threats I face are from my own imagination and perhaps an accident. Memories may haunt my idle thoughts. Something I read, listen to, or watch could inspire spontaneous fear or rage, resentment, regret, remorse or jealousy, envy; but as likely as not I will have no such negative feelings.
The vast majority of the time I am free from dangers of any kind from outside myself. That plain fact, however, does not allow me immediately even to suspect whether the police powers of the state could be unnecessary for my well being.
I am apparently more fearful based on what has happened to others in other places and times than on what I myself have been fortunate enough to avoid. I therefore accept that violence in the hands of officers of the law is acceptable, even knowing that often it is applied unjustly and improperly, and may at some point be turned against me likewise inappropriately.
Intelligent and good-natured persons accept those conditions. They accept convoluted arguments in the absence of evidence, or even when much evidence and experience trends otherwise, to rationalize their fears.
It can take the form of theories: “Humans are…and so we must…” Statistics and science certainly leap into the considerations and justifications. More often anecdotes and the news inspire our thinking and feelings.
In these matters I differ little from anyone else reading this. Of that I am certain. My entire life I have accepted coercive force and the constant threat of it as necessary for me to feel and be safe from having violence visited on me at any moment.
This may not be the time and place to explore these matters fully. Social media posts cater to short attention spans and quick diversion. But there are questions we seem to fail to ask ourselves about our tacit acceptance of violence as a means of staying safe, even when we are safe.
I Dwell In Possibility 