Evil is not defeated by submitting to it. Evil is not defeated by running away from it; nor is evil defeated by ignoring it.
Evil is only defeated by fighting back.
You may, or may not, think you have the right to self-defence — and that is between you and your conscience. As a member of society — as a member of a community — you have the duty, the obligation, and the responsibility of self-defence.
LawDog
Meditations on Self Defence
January 27, 2008
[Via Tam. I’m in full agreement with this philosophy but not all people are.
I had an interesting discussion with my officemate last week. She is from India and a Jain. Just a quick refresher on that philosophy of life:
Nonviolence includes the concepts of vegetarianism. Jains are expected to be non-violent in thought, word, and deed, both toward humans and toward all other living beings, including their own selves. Jain monks and nuns walk barefoot and sweep the ground in front of them to avoid killing any insects or other tiny beings. Even though all life is considered sacred by the Jains, human life is deemed the highest form of life. For this reason, it is considered vital never to harm or upset any person.
They also don’t eat the roots of plants because of the increased chance of harming some organism that lives in the soil or the root. She does eat dairy products but not eggs.
Quite a contrast from me. I asked her, “If a lion was about to have you, or your children, for lunch does your religion require you to submit? The answer was that in the most pure form, yes, you are required to tolerate being lunch. But of course most people would not do that. They would fight back. Similar responses were obtained after gentle probes about taking antibiotics and defending against a human attacker. I dropped the subject. Maybe some other time when we have lots of time (this was to/from a lunch for our group) I’ll explore more. It seems so odd to me that their ideal and the admitted practical are so divergent. And that she is so positive about my explosive videos. Maybe it’s just the contrast from her live experience in a non-threatening form. Or maybe she is just being a Jain and doesn’t want to upset me by showing her disapproval.
[shrug]
Those are questions for another time–we have a product to ship…–Joe]
Jahovaha’s witnesses are similar in that they will not participate in war. The reasoning is that if everyone were like them, there could be no war.
This of course ignores the indisputable fact that not everyone is like them.
In reality, the question is; Should violent aggressors be opposed or should they be allowed to dominate us? or “Who’s going to risk their own lives to bail out your sorry ass when things get really tough, and why?”
The only food I know of which does not involve death is honey.
Even milk (and derivative products) requires a cow to kill grass and other feeds.
Until I meet a “honeytarian” (who will likely be short-live due to diabetes), I won’t buy anybody saying that they are opposed to death.
Even Bambi kills vegitation.
Bah, mush-headedness…
Rob, cows eat grass without killing it. Wheat, dry corn, barley, dry peas, lentils, etc. all go through their complete life cycle before the seeds are harvested. Fruits such as apples, peaches, pears, pumpkins, squash, berries, and tomatoes have actually evolved the “food” part of the plant such that it promotes the spreading of their seeds without harming the main plant.
There may be a certain amount of “mush-headedness” involved in trying to live by such a philosophy in the real world today but it’s not for the reason you state.
Rob:
You advocate Bee slavery?
There are millions upon millions more cattle in the world, bucause we eat them, than ther ever could be otherwise. Same goes for all other species we breed or cultivate.
Hence; if you want to protect a species, put it on the menue at McDonalds. If you want to guaratee it a place in the stars, make it one of our most important foods. Right now, that would probably be a grain, a yeast, a ruminate and a bacteria: For bread, beer, and cheese.