Violence

In the majority of cases, I think it's very clear that violence is just bad - I can't think of anything to say in defence of domestic abuse, happy slapping or unprovoked attacks. However, the question is whether violence is justifiable in a minority of situations.

The most obvious is self-defence. Personally I think that everyone has the right to defend themselves or someone they care about and if the only way to do this effectively is through violence, then I think that this is justified. Apart from anything, this is often a natural instinct if someone attacks you, rather than making a moral choice to assault someone.

Another issue is whether or not it is still bad to use physical violence on someone if you have experienced extreme provocation but the person has not physically attacked you. I do understand that, whilst I think that every effort should be made to resolve the situation in a non-violent way, everyone has their breaking points and I can see that sometimes people can be pushed too far. I suppose that each situation must be judged by its own merits as it's all relative and depends on the circumstances.

An article relating to the recent incident where a teacher attacked a pupil: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/apr/28/peter-harvey-teacher-pupil-violence

At the extreme end of the scale, info about a film based on the true story of a battered wife who killed her husband after years of abuse: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/bollywood-tells-true-story-of-the-wife-who-fought-back-441586.html