Violence Begets Violence

Read two interesting articles in the past couple of days on NRO, both calling to mind the aphorism “violence begets violence.” The first, by Dennis Prager, here, is about one of the Super Bowl ads, where a five-year-old boy slaps an adult suitor leering at his single mom. The second, by Victor Davis Hanson, here, is about the PC queasiness regarding openly acknowledging that killing enemy combatants is the key to victory.

Prager brings up a very, very good point about this almost-cliché. A lot of times you hear the whole “violence begets violence” cry in the context of disciplining children, particularly by spanking. He adds this distinction: Immoral violence begets more violence. Moral violence begets less violence. In his opinion, spanking is an example of moral violence that results in less violence, in this case, well-behaved children who grow up to be healthy, productive adults. Another example of moral violence he cites is the use of necessary force by police.

Hanson focuses on the fact that the way to win a war is by killing the enemy. Speeches, diplomacy, economic sanctions – none will have the same powerful effect. Some feel that by killing enemy combatants we create more, since this is a form of violence, and “violence begets violence.” (Some would argue that war is a form of immoral violence, but most don’t make this distinction.) The thinking behind this is that there is an infinite number of potential enemy fighters waiting to step up to take the place of killed comrades. Hanson points out that this most likely is not true; it certainly wasn’t the case after we eventually killed all the true believers in the Nazi and Japanese causes during WW II. For example, we are not still fighting kamikazes in the northern Pacific.

The main question of our time, it seems to me, is whether or not our current engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq – and the philosophical stance behind them – are moral or immoral. To quote my least-favorite president, the question is above my pay grade. Honestly, as a result of the limited reading and thinking I have done on the subject, I probably lean 90% moral. In Iraq we are currently seeing a waning of violence, whereas in Afghanistan there is an increase. But this can not be a judgment or a test of Prager’s distinction – the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan are the results of our government’s long- and short-range strategies and tactics.

I believe immoral violence begets more violence, but moral violence begets less.