Violence, threats and force do not work!

is nothing which hardens someone’s heart and resolve in the opposite direction more than being violently threatened or forced to do something which one does not want to do, or does not agree with. Threats and force lose rather than win hearts. Threatening or forcing someone is good as declaring war on that person. Threats and force are usually used when one has run out of ideas, or has failed to win someone over through facts, logic, reason, persuasion or dialogue. Regardless of failure to win someone over, there is absolutely no justification at all for issuing threats and using force against anybody! The issuance of threats and the use of force is more reflective of the wanting or deficient character, personality and behaviour of the one issuing those threats or using that force than that of the one who would be at the receiving end of those threats or force. This is very true and correct no matter how wrong and deserving the one on whom the threats or force may be directed. For a start, threats are equivalent to verbal violence, while the use of force is plain physical violence! There is absolutely no justification whatsoever for the use of violence, be it of the threatening or forceful variety, to achieve any desired goal or objective! No one must ever do or be allowed to do that.

VIOLENCE

At the end of the day, the use of threats, force and violence will always backfire and alienate the user from the person on whom those things are used instead of endearing the aggressor to the victim. Once threats are issued or force and violence are used, the one on whom these unpalatable things are applied would actually think, believe, see and know that after all, they were right about the aggressor all along. They would now see and know that they were right about you the aggressor being such a very bad good for nothing person who would not brook at anything or stop at anything but use unpalatably violent methods to get whatever you want to get in any given situation. They would then irreversibly believe that they were right to do whatever it is that they did, which would have caused you the aggressor to issue those threats or use that force or violence against them. After that, they would be even more determined than ever before to stick to their guns and also to stick to their original decision and never to budge come what may. If at any one time it looks like they are curving in, or have curved in because of the violence, threats or force used, they would only be temporarily pretending to have curved in, given in, or given up while they figure out a very good and permanent escape route from both you the aggressor and your threats or use of force against them. Mark my words on this one!

For example, if your girlfriend decides to end things with you, but you threaten her with physical violence and even violently force her to continue with the relationship through beating her up, do you think that her eventual concession to continue in and with the love relationship would be genuine at all? No, it would not be genuine at all. She would only be agreeing to continue in and with the relationship so as to save her skin from further beatings.

PERMANENTLY

Meanwhile, she would be busy planning how to permanently get out of your life and put as much distance between herself and you as she possibly can. Unfortunately, sometimes this could also mean or include even getting rid of you in a very nasty and permanent way! Hence, many unsuspecting but violent boyfriends and husbands have inadvertently found themselves prematurely on their final journey to meet with their creator just because of their threatening and forceful nature and mannerisms in their love relationships!

One of the best examples that the use of violence, threats and force does not work at all is given by what happened to most colonial governments. Colonialists violently and forcefully forced themselves onto the people whom they colonised. They further violently ruled over these colonised people through threats of physical violence and actual use of physicalviolencewhensomeofthecolonised people decided to defy colonial authority. For over one hundred years in some cases, colonialists seemed to have succeeded in permanently colonising the people whom they colonised, but that was not true at all. Generationsupongenerationsofthecolonised people never ever accepted or acquiesced to colonial rule and colonial authority at all. At any one given time, and deep down in their heartsandminds,theyalwaysharbouredvery strong resentment against colonial regimes. This natural resentment was then passed on from one generation to another. Hence, this generational discontent against colonialism and colonial rule eventually led to liberation struggles in many if not all previously colonised countries with resultant independence from colonial rule.

WISDOM

In the modern post-colonial period, many national governments have found themselves also on the wrong side of this old wisdom and old adage that the use of threats and force does not work at all. The problem with many if not most liberation movement based post-independence national governments is that they always seem to think and believe that they are entitled to rule their countries forever and ever! Nothing is further from the truth than that. There is no liberation movement based post-colonial and post-independence national government which is entitled to be in power forever, or which will be in power forever. Any national government is in power and rules because of the consent of the people whom it rules. Once these people withdraw their consent and for whatever reason, that national government cannot and will not remain in power for long, even if it tries to threaten or force its way through. Unfortunately, just as colonial governments before them, most if not all liberation movement based post-independence national governments seem to be totally oblivious of this fact. They seem to want to delude themselves that they will rule forever and ever, but that will not happen! One way or the other, they will all be removed from office and new and even better regimes will be installed in their place. No one has got the monopoly to govern people against their will, even if one uses threats or force to achieve that end result. The use of threats and force does not work at all!

PERSUASION

Rather than use threats and force, it is listening to each other, dialogue and persuasion which can easily win the day. We have seen many countries in which national governments unfortunately pitted themselves against their own citizens but subsequently and eventually lost the battle. In all and every political dispute situation, the people would always win because usually, the majority are on the side of what is good, right, and correct, and also of what the people want. National disputes are usually social, economic or political in nature, while national governments have always been class acts. The ruling government class always has its own national growth and development agenda which more often than not is always at loggerheads with that of the ruled common people on the streets. The ruling Oligarchs’ national agenda is usually disguised as being beneficial to all and yet it would only be beneficial to themselves alone. They would just be hoping to fool the public. However, with so much knowledge and information being available everywhere on the internet, the general public has now become wiser and more and more difficult to fool or cheat. Consequently, national policy differences engendered clashes between the ruling class and the ruled are now more common and frequent. In response to such differences in opinion engendered clashes, many national governments have resorted to using threats and force to pressure dissenting voices into submission. This does not work and has never really worked in the long run anywhere on this planet, but many misguided national governments still continue to do it anyway! This is tragic because such has led to unnecessary loss of lives, livelihoods and destruction of property. Yet eventually, there always has been negotiated settlements to all disputes. One wonders why both parties would not, right from the beginning, realise and accede to the fact that eventually the dispute would still have to be peacefully negotiated and settled rather that going to war about it first and then later on ending up at the negotiating table? Is this due to cruelty, stupidity, greed or all of these things put together?

On the other hand, the aggrieved general public would also realise a few truths about the futility of using threats or force, but when it would also be too late. They would eventually realise that no matter how angry or aggrieved they may have been with their own national government, destroying public infrastructure, burning down homesteads and other properties of those whom they ideologically do not agree with, would eventually not solve anything at all, let alone the matter at hand. If anything, it would just harden the resolve of their opponents. It is far better to dialogue about any political and other differences than to fight about them. Fighting or violence would leave everyone a disabled and homeless destitute. There is no victory in fighting, only prolonged animosity, pain and suffering. Everlasting love, peace and harmony is a product of constructive dialogue and not war. Dialogue is making peace, not war. Dialogue brings people together instead of dividing them. And the purpose of national dialogue, debate or discussion is not to win or to attain victory over one another, but to peacefully, respectfully, truthfully, openly and honestly find workable solutions to national challenges. No misunderstanding has ever been sustainably resolved without dialogue. Sustainable victory is not achieved on the battle field, but in the minds of protagonists, not through fighting, but through dialogue, and not through force, but through reasoned persuasion. Work to win the minds of your opponents and you will never have to fight a single war ever again! Be wise, chose peace not war. Always chose dialogue!