Absolutely Nothing

[andrewducker]

[Poll #394559]

Comments

[lilitufire.livejournal.com]

I'm really swithering about this one - see me swither, particularly about the last question. I think the swithering is about whether it's a bad thing to be violent at all times, and what constitutes an innocent person anyway...

[sneaks.livejournal.com]

Situation and circumstance.

[kimberly-a.livejournal.com]

I chose not to check any boxes in the poll, because I found it all too simplistic for such a complex subject.

For example, is violence justified in defending oneself against a slap? How about a punch? How about a rape? How about a knifing? If yes to any/all of these, how much violence is justified in each case? Is it justified to knife someone to keep him/her from punching you in the face? I don't think so. But is it justified to knock someone unconscious to protect yourself from a rape? I'd say yes. Is it justified to kill someone to prevent a rape? That one gets fuzzier for me, but I still lean toward yes. Deadly force is more difficult for me to justify in my own mind, but there are cases where I think it can be justified.

When it comes right down to it, I think it's something each individual person has to decide for him/herself. One person might consider shooting another person (or bombing an entire building full of people) justified to protect himself, while I might have trouble dealing with shooting someone to protect myself from being raped or beaten or even murdered. My threshold for what kind of violence I'm willing to commit and under what circumstances is different from anyone else's, and the same is true for each of us.

I find the second question similarly simplistic. Is it justified to kill a violent person to save the world from that person's tendency to get in bar fights? I don't think so. Is it justified to kill a violent person to save the world from that person's tendency to serially torture, mutilate, and murder? That starts getting more into the area where I say yes.

This, of course, then raises the issue of proof. I have little faith in the U.S. judicial system, in particular, and therefore do not trust them to only execute people who are truly guilty. They'll just execute people they've been able to legally convict, regardless of the truth of the matter. Innocent people are convicted every day. Who gets to decide the definition of a "violent person" and who gets to decide what constitutes proof? I'm not comfortable giving that power to someone (or some agency) that isn't truly impartial.

As for your final question, I'd have to say that I don't think it's ever justified to kill an innocent person. There may be circumstances under which people make that decision, and I don't fault them for that, but it's not a decision I can imagine myself being able to make. Of course, I haven't been in a situation that would actually test that, and so I can only speculate based on the experiences I have had and how they made me react.

[avatar.livejournal.com]

Generalise?

[green-amber.livejournal.com]

I coudn't do it either. too difficult.