«My mother says that violence never settles anything.»
«So. I’m sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that. Why doesn’t your mother tell them so? Or why don’t you?»
«You’re making fun of me! Everybody knows that Carthage was destroyed!»
«You seemed to be unaware of it, since you do know it, wouldn’t you say that violence had settled their destinies rather thoroughly? However, I was not making fun on you personally; I was heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea – a practice I shall always follow. Anyone who clings to the historically untrue – and thoroughly immoral – doctrine that ‹violence never settles anything› I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breed that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.»
«Starship Troopers»
I have already written about Tim Larkin’s «When Violence is the Answer». Not a nice book to read, but one that … well, like with weapons, better have it and not need it than vice versa.
Even though having read it, I did fall for the demonstration in his TEDxTalk (a surprisingly good one, but it’s a few years old):
Very, very well done.
