LET US PREVENT HARM!: LET US DEFEND OURSELVES AND OTHERS

We have the right to self-defense. Therefore, if someone abuses us or others, instead of remaining passively idle, we should defend ourselves and defend others.

Let us start in the most peaceful and assertive way possible, but if the aggressor does not correct their behavior, let us respond more firmly. And, exceptionally, if there is no other way to prevent the abuse, it may even be necessary to resort to violence.

ASSERTIVENESS

It is advisable to try to resolve conflicts assertively. In fact, I am not the most suitable person to speak about this quality, since my natural tendency is clearly justice-upright-avenging, and at times I can become very irritable about injustices. However, having read something about assertiveness helps me try to moderate my reactions filled with indignation and defensive aggressiveness in response to abuse.

Assertiveness consists of expressing what one thinks, feels, and wants in a way that is respectful of others. It involves defending one’s own rights or needs without being hostile and without attacking, offending, threatening, or coercing, and without allowing oneself to be attacked or offended. Read more in…

…“Personal Well-Being Techniques”

FIRMNESS

If the above is of no use, it is justified to move from gentleness, diplomacy, and exquisite politeness to firmness. When someone crosses the line and does not stop the abuse, we have the right to speak loudly and clearly, even if they do not like it. If that does not work, the situation is taking a very dark turn, so we may threaten them with legal or other actions and even shout at them, so that trampling on others does not come for free. And let us know that it is natural and entirely legitimate to feel indignation and to have negative feelings both toward the abuses and toward the victimizers.

LET US LIVE WITHOUT CAUSING HARM!: Speak loudly and clearly in the face of injustice

LIVING WITHOUT CAUSING HARM: Do not tell others how they should feel

If the abuser does not correct their behavior, it is a very bad sign and means it is advisable to use legal channels.

VIOLENCE

When all of the above is not enough, it is justified to defend ourselves by force. In fact, all states use violence to enforce the law when they cannot do so peacefully, with police officers who shoot criminals or riot police who spray water at aggressive demonstrators.

Therefore, in the West, since Roman times, we have depicted justice as a woman holding a set of scales high in one hand and, in the other, a sword, ready in case it must be used to restore rightful order. That is why this symbol can be seen in many courts.

In fact, some democracies have been achieved peacefully, but many others through liberal revolutions when it was not possible by peaceful means to put an end to tyrannical monarchies and dictatorships. The same occurred with the abolition of slavery in the southern United States or in Haiti.

For example, it is a legitimate right to attack with a weapon inside one’s home if someone breaks in with bad intentions. And it is right that the laws of all countries protect this.

That said, it is advisable to limit coercive means to exceptional situations and to use judicial, administrative, political, media, and other channels.

PROPORTIONALITY

In any case, what is right is that the response be proportional: large for major abuses, medium for moderate abuses, and small for minor grievances.

HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT CAUSING HARM?: Be proportional in the face of abuse

However, there is an exception to this golden rule: emergency situations. At times, to defend oneself from an attack it is necessary to act swiftly and forcefully like lightning, causing harm (which could even result in death) to avoid the risk that they will threaten one’s own physical integrity.

There are situations in which there is no choice but to react within seconds or fractions of a second. In those cases, it would be absurd to demand that the victim ask their victimizer:

-Tell me how you plan to attack me and please give me a few minutes so that I can calculate the proportionality of my defense against the attack you intend to carry out against me. Let me call my lawyer and the duty court to ask how I should react so that later they do not tell me that I overreacted.

Therefore, what is right is that laws include both the general rule of proportionality and the emergency exception. Proportionality is a principle that, if applied with glass-like rigidity, causes justice to shatter into sharp pieces that end up cutting and harming innocent victims.

DEFENDING OTHERS

On the other hand, we have the right (and the ethical duty) to defend other people who are being abused, even by bringing to light and opposing injustices committed by ethnic, national, religious, ideological, and other groups, no matter how much this may displease complicit members of those groups.

FOR A WORLD WITHOUT HARM: Let us avoid harmful herd mentality

And therefore we have the freedom (and the moral obligation) to speak about politics and religion when it is to expose and denounce abuses that have that dimension. Of course, all of this will always irritate victimizers and their accomplices, but it is basic and necessary to eradicate evil and achieve a just world.

LET US PREVENT HARM!: Let us talk about politics and religion

LET US PREVENT HARM!: Let us denounce injustices

When one fights against an abuse, there will always be people for whom it is uncomfortable—specifically, those who are part of that injustice, either as perpetrators or as accomplices, such as traditionalists who insist on maintaining the current abusive status quo. But that discomfort is part of those people’s moral healing.

THE ART OF LIVING WITHOUT CAUSING HARM: Be conservative with what is good and progressive with what is harmful

I do not know about you, but I do not intend to stand idly by when an innocent person is victimized, because whoever harms that victim harms me as well.

LET US BE A PROTECTIVE SHIELD!

In conclusion, it is our legitimate right (and moral duty) to defend ourselves and defend others against the aggressor using all means within our reach, while always respecting the rights of others. Therefore, I advise you to do so as well, and to encourage others to do so.

Thank you for sharing to help achieve a world with less harm,