Violence is always the easiest solution. Easy in the sense of the immediate gratification of bringing closure to the situation at hand. It gives the person committing the violence a sense of putting effort towards a problem, and it is the violence itself is a very cathartic act. However, violence is definitely a short term solution to anything. By violence, I don't mean simply physical violence but any other form as well.

It's almost a truism that caring and understanding take time. By their very nature, it requires a lot of effort to fully understand people and situations. Just because it takes time, doesn't mean that it's not a worthwhile cause however, but it does mean that those who are very busy tend to be the least able to attain a state of understanding.

In terms of "intellectual violence", it's very easy to disagree with somebody who expresses opinions contrary to your own. It's easy to just flame them or soft-link all manner of evil against them. The harder (and perhaps better) solution is to take the time to understand why they came to the opinion that they're at. Everybody has their own set of reasons for the worldviews that they hold. To spend time with somebody who you obviously are starting on bad terms with and then get to know them well enough to understand them takes both patience on both ends and a lot of time.

But, we only have so much time in our hurried lives, as we run from place to place in our own busy beaver fashion. We don't have the time to care about everybody. Because of this, for some, the easiest way to deal with those people that you don't have time to care about, is in some violent fashion: violent intellectually by flaming or arguing, violent emotionally by being apathetic, or even simply being violent physically. If you feel like this person you meet on the street who is arguing with you will never listen to you, then maybe a swift blow to the head may certainly expedite their understanding how you feel about them. I do not know whether violence is ever the answer, as this isn't the place to discuss that can of worms, but it is certain, to me at least, that violence is often used when people are in a hurry and don't have time to find the compassionate solution.

Nodeshell liberated by the Front of Armed Nodeshell Liberators

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