And as expected, you rushed in to take sides. What does your reaction indicate? That you practiced violence – in the form of rushing-, and didn’t give your mind time to think and act. So simple, so clear.
If life were based on not practicing violence, it would NOT EXIST. The well-known genetics motto Fight or Flight is the answer to all questions. Some generations back, our (Greek) grandparents, had this saying that “beating came out of paradise,” and they meant it gently with more love than a lot of today’s grandparents. For them, the necessary practice of some form of violence was required to prepare us for the difficulties of life. We had to learn to survive.
But let’s focus for a moment in the “survival.” These words, violence, and survival share a common root (not only in the ancient Greek language – via & vios – but also in Latin). Therefore, any further connection in the processes they express could not possibly be random.
“War is the father of all, and the king of all. He renders some gods, other men; he makes some slaves, others free.” Heraclitus.
And do not jump in again to state that there is a difference in the meaning of war and of violence because there is no good and bad violence, as there is no evil and good war.
Yes, but since we are not protozoa, we have to put things in order. If humanity were driven only by violence, there would be no civilization. And civilization is necessary to ascent man and separate him from the irrational creatures of creation. I do not use the word civilization as a synonym of culture. A civilized person is different from a sophisticated one. I am civilized is different from I am cultured.
So a civilized person will not use violence. But what does that mean? It means that his personality control center does no longer run by his emotions but from his mind. This takes him out of the processes of pure survival and leads him to other fields of existence. However, it is not my intention to follow now that path and to be honest, I am bored in repeating old articles again and again.
Whether you like it or not, modern life contains violence as well as civilization. You know why? Because they are both VITAL to our lives.
However, there is a word that unlocks these processes and becomes a guide for their use. And the magic word is “Need.”
Necessitas non habet legem – not even the gods fight necessity.
So, what is that need?
I quote: But Orphic theology about necessity is found in both ancient philosophy and tragedy. According to the ancient philosophers, Plato considers the goddess Need as the mother of Fates, and Plutarch as the mother of Adrasteia. Proclus considers her to be the mother of Destiny, who gave birth to her from the Creator, and Stobaeus believes Need to be the daughter of Saturn and the sister of goddess Themis, and finally, Euripides equates her with one of the Furies.
According to what was said in Plato’s ‘Symposium’ before Eros was dominating, only Necessity was in charge, and everything happened under her reign. In particular, Plato, in his ‘State’ scripts, describes the goddess Need to bear on her knees a diamond shaft into which the Universe revolves.
And according to the ancient tragic poets (Aeschylus, Euripides, Callimachus) Need is a heavy yoke with an irresistible power to both gods and people. Hence the age-old saying – a proverb that Diogenes Laertius attributes to the philosopher Pitta ‘Necessitas non habet legem,’ which translates as: “At the need, even the gods recede.”
This is the keyword for me. There is no correct and mean violence, there is a necessary one and a non-necessary. The same goes for culture. Culture is chosen only by those who have survived and who do NOT risk their lives from any form of violence. But when this happens, man forgets civilization and whatever they have taught him and is fighting for his life.
As individuals, and aside from what rank life has given us, we must respect the positions and opinions of others, we must NOT practice either verbal nor actual violence, and try to make those conditions in society that will gradually be able to move more and more people towards culture. The knowledge of history is most often necessary.
And do not forget, imposing one’s view is a form of violence. Even the one that means well.
To you, the very logical and correct, fans of non-violence and to all people, I wish from my heart, NEVER to be forced to use violence in your life and consider yourselves very fortunate if NEED has not forced you to violate this principle.
