Violence and Force Defined

Mark Passio emphasizes in his work that force and violence are not the same thing. They may look like it, but there is a key difference and that comes from the root of "violence" as a word; it is the same as the root for "violation", and it means the trespassing or infringement of others' inherent rights for unjust reasons or objectives. To do physical harm to another without a lawful reason is to violate the physical body of another, so that is violence; to do physical harm to another if they attempt to do so first upon you (again, without a lawful reason) is force. Summarized, this is the Self-Defense Principle: an individual has an innate, inherent Natural Law right to use whatever force is required to put down a threat to that individual's property (especially his body), dependents or any other violation of his other rights. Coupled with the Non-Aggression Principle (do not violate the rights of others, i.e. no coercion of any sort to get what you want), these are the Sacred Masculine and Feminine (respectively) and make up the twin pillars of a lawful--and therefore healthy--individual as well as any collection thereof, something that scales up infinitely. This is why man-made rules are total wastes of time.

If read Passio correctly, this is an accurate depiction of that position. Therefore, a change in my use of language is in order, something I will follow through on in future posts.