Violence... A Good Idea?

Is violence ever a good idea?

I would have to say that there are SOME situations in which violence is permittable. Let's start with the most basic, self-defense. Of course, if someone comes up to you in a dark alley and tries to mug you or rape you or something that inflicts damage, you should try and fight back. If we're talking about just randomly walking up to someone and physically harming them for no reason, then you definitely should not do that. When it comes to war, I don't see why we can't just resolve shit without having to lose thousands of soldiers. Really, the only case for violence would be if you were originally attacked and you fought back. If the person wouldn't attack you, however, there would be no need for self-defense. That is the problem, however. There's always going to be someone someone that's going to want to hurt you for no reason and you have every right to fight back.

I do not think that any type of demonstrations should ever be violent. Malcolm X's "anything necessary" policy did nothing but make a lot of places worse because some African-Americans took that to mean "if he hits me, I can hit back" and then turned into "I'm just going to hit him before he hits me". Of course, Malcolm X had nothing but good intentions overall, I was just making a point. More leaders of movements should follow M.L.K.'s lead.