In today's time, violence seems to be the essence of our world. Wars, riots, muggings, and the terror that they create exist everywhere the eye may look, even in the richest countries of this world. Because of this violence, starvation is wide spread and happiness is dissipating where it once flourished. Ironically, this is a result of a form of persuasion that is often considered logical and ethical. This method can be used to gain peace, “If others aren't willing to understand us, let's force them to do so through violence.”

Unfortunately, what these good-willed beings that strive for peace don't realize is that a person cannot simply eliminate a problem with violence. It tampers with the system of humanity’s natural defense mechanisms and one of humanity's most dangerous traits is activated. This trait is vengeance. Someone somewhere will be hurt by the primary deed and hence create rather unnecessary acts of distaste themselves, which are sometimes not even aimed at the doer. Then, afterwards, as the chain reaction continues, there will be retribution for the secondary deed therefore leading to even further violence. Finally, prejudices and stereotypes, which create lasting hatred, are born. This is not even including the ethical viewpoint that all humans have a right to freedom of belief, which we all tend to share yet conveniently find a way to abandon in times of economical need. Even in goodwill, all acts of violence lead to tragedy due to vengeance, a secondary retribution, and, finally, prejudices and stereotypes that emerge. Instead, we should focus on understanding people and helping them understand us through peaceful means.

Could you imagine if your father was murdered because of his publicly condemned belief system? Even if his absence helped others, might you fight back, especially if you disagreed with the murderer or disliked the ones being helped? Might you act with aggression? It seems that everyone has a loved one or sympathizer whether it's a mother, a friend or simply someone who agrees with one. So, when a human is killed, what might that human’s followers and loved ones do? There is a high percent chance that at least one of them will fight back if not all of them at once. At least one of them most likely will hurt another being out of frustration or even revenge. Think of the implications. This circumstance has been seen in many pieces of literature including fictional pieces such as Eragon, where a boy is fighting partly in revenge for his father and teacher and hence is conjuring more violence while hurting a partly peaceful species. Automatically the world might be a lesser place even after the absence of that one human, not even counting the magnitude of the repercussions. More parties would soon be involved and eventually we would have a constant struggle for power, as each side is hungry for “justice”.

Then, the already dire situation comes to an even further level of desperation. Now, not only are there the current struggles, but soon people start assuming traits to unborn or innocent humans with no logical explanation at all besides that a small population of the population that the still unborn or innocent humans are associated with is being unfair and violent. This has been seen within culture today, as, in airports, many Americans still seem to unfairly suspect Middle-Eastern men as terrorists over a typical Caucasian due to a small percentage of the Middle-Eastern population who happen to be terrorists. From these prejudices and stereotypes, even more unnecessary acts of violence occur and a lasting struggle hardens that seemed to be almost impossible to put a stop to already and what once was an almost perfect world has come close to the world we live in today. Some might even suggest that peaceful attempts using violence created the world we live in today.

This is not so far fetched from the truth. Most acts of violence that created famous horrors today were considered struggles for good in many minds. In fact, this indeed may have been the source of our world’s problems. This good-willed person could have been a Roman leader ordering the death of Jesus, as he believed the Christian religion to be a fraud, or, this good-willed person could have been Adolf Hitler, as he tried to eliminate what he considered to be an inferior percent of people who he believed negatively impacted civilization. Both these examples may have started with a peaceful attempt, but lead to revenge, war, and prejudices within the world’s society. The truth is we cannot judge what is good for society and what is obstructing peace. We have to understand and communicate with the people we feel disrupt society so that eventually we will sympathize with them or they will sympathize with us. We can see that violence is not the answer from these examples of horrors, which started as attempts for peace, as maybe all human sufferings do. All violence is obstructive to society based on initial revenge, secondary retribution, and finally prejudices and stereotypes that emerge, as violence is the source of this pitiful world we live in and feeds it to this day.