I’ve been meditating on violence for couple of weeks now, and I observe that violence is like a dance. It has beginning, a middle, and an end. There is a ceremony to it. It requires two parties, at least. More for line dancing. It can be beautiful to behold and also ugly.
Now I’m not talking about the personal application of kinetic force; I don’t know anything about that. That’s not what this series is about. Sure, I can shoot a gun — everyone should have some basics on that just for safety’s sake, just like they should know how to tie a knot, swim, drive a car, and slice a turkey at Thanksgiving.

I’m thinking about violence as a part of the world we live in. Violence is a regular and steady component of every civilization that I am familiar with. I mean, the United States is “that” nation that is constantly at war — we have been at war for more of our history than we have been at peace. Inside the US, there is constant violence ( I’m not just talking street crimes — those hold no interest to me). Armed government workers (policemen) and prisons are fundamental parts of our society; America would not be America without our own domestic standing army of “policemen” and the largest prison system, per capita, on the planet. Those are institutions of violence. We now have more armed federal civilian government workers than the entire U.S. Marine Corps. And this does not include state, county and local law enforcement.
But that’s not what this article is about, either. Others can wax quite elegantly about that.
I want to talk about how the dance starts.
There is a ritual to beginning violence. …
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