Non-Violence And Peace Through Strength

Non-violence is a beautiful concept. However actually putting it into place would take draconian measures. The reason is that a population that is non-violent leaves itself prey to occupation by populations that are violent. To actually make non-violence work, no population could be allowed to be violent. That would take a tyrannical world government; and most people would not be open to such a thing.

The same thing takes place inside the countries. Both Netherlands and Switzerland have a low violent crime rate. In Netherlands nobody is allowed to have a gun, and in Switzerland everyone is required to have a gun. The first country makes it impossible for most people to commit violent crime, and the second country lets people defend themselves. Whereas in America violent crime is through the roof. That is because in America some people have guns and others do not. And the people who do not have guns leave themselves open to brutality by people who do.

I do not believe that it will ever be possible to keep American people from having guns. Nor is it even desirable. In some situations people need to have guns. If you live in the country and the nearest police station is three hours away, you better have a gun. If you live in the inner city and the police don't know what they are doing, you better have a gun as well.

We see the same thing with non-violence. Once again, the people who are non-violent leave themselves open to occupation by people who are violent. And that does not create peace. It allows the bad guys to run everything while the people of conscience are being enslaved.

For this reason I endorse Reagan's doctrine of peace through strength, and I hope that the current administration continues that doctrine