My neighbors posted this in their window:

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.

Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate.

In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

--Martin Luther King


I like these words very much. I hope that we can resume such an attitude as early as possible.
As Gandhi's success also demonsrates, it is an effective attitude to take with those who have the capacity to learn it. If they do not, then you still require a policeman.

caritas,

mm <*))))))><

With all due respect to MLK, I find those kinds of statements too absolutist. You have only to consider the fact that Naziism and Japanese imperialism are no more, and that we get along fairly well with both the Germans and Japanese to see that we did murder the lies, truth did prevail, and the cycle of violence ended with the allied victories in WWII. Hopefully, the same can one day be said about our relationships with countries in the Middle East. Murdering their "lies" is a more complex matter, however.

In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

I've always thought that letting evil run unopposed multiplied violence like nothing else. Perhaps we need to hear such oversimplified sayings over and over and over again so that we don't make violence our first choice without thought. But one might also consider that some choose an unhealthy pacifism without thought.

I don't want to be sounding like I disagree with King's and Gandhi's efforts at non-violent resolutions. That ought to always be our first priority in any kind of conflict, and I think they've explored creative ways to go about that. It's really the absolutist platitudes used by so many in the "peace movement" that I take issue with.

This thread on nonviolence and Christian teaching goes into it in considerable depth, with some thoughtful pacifists dropping in to share their views.