The vow to renounce war

Watching the Attack on Titan series, which was certainly one of the biggest anime of 2018. Due to its innovative plot, intriguing story combined with its amazing animation and voice acting, I came across a concept I had never thought of before. Far from me the desire to spoil the series for you, just do some research and get into it if you care. To understand the concept, I have to give some backstory.

The plot is about a group of persons who gain destructive powers and after years of tormenting the world, the king of that group decides to lock them all into huge walls to prevent them from going out and harming people anymore, added to this he puts into their minds “the vow to renounce war”. This makes it in such a way that no matter what happens to them they can never fight back or harm anyone outside of that group. That was also a way for him to atone for all the evil they did before with their destructive power and this equally prevents them from leaving or destroying the walls.

What I want to explore here isn’t the story line of that anime but rather this concept, I want us to look in deeper into it.

Renouncing from conflicts

Right now there is a war in some part of the world, thousands are fighting against each other. I am also sure that right now not too far from me there are two persons fighting for whatsoever reason. Despite all the tools we have in communication, all the education we received and all the modern day technology we have, somehow we still return to those basic instincts of ours for violence. It seems the nature of man is to return to violence, no matter how advanced we become or how many things change around us. This means that renouncing from conflicts is impossible, even for a non-violent person, even for a person who is powerless, there is always that option for violence at the back of their minds.

As you might imagine, it's not because that group of persons decide to renounce war that everybody else did the same, they were constantly attacked by outsiders no matter how peaceful they tried to be. That is the same for anyone who chooses to be peaceful, you might not want a fight, but that doesn’t stop a fight from coming for you. This means that renouncing from violence and deciding to respond to every violent encounter is basically making yourself powerless and vulnerable, something I don’t think you want to do.

Violence isn’t just used in an offensive manner, it is also used in a defensive way, to protect not just what we have but also what we cherish. Putting in your mind that you will never fight back, or you will always use peace as a way to resolve all your conflicts despite being very altruistic, is a bad idea. A simple example happens when you are faced with a danger you can’t mediate with, a violent dog, wild animals or an insane person. There is no amount of logic which can save you from violence in these instance and if you won’t resort to it then you will lose all what you have, even your life.

The source of violence

Most if not every conflict stems from a misunderstanding, in this case it isn’t about two persons not being able to understand each other but rather two entities not being able to come to a common understanding. In the case of the previous example, the lion only knows the law of the jungle, kill or be killed and what you know are diplomatic tactics or communication skills. The only thing you have in common with that lion is the law of nature which is also the law of the strongest. Who is stronger gets his way and the other has to fold.

In nature, conflicts are solved with violence, that's the only law common to every specie. You can imagine meeting with a group of persons from another part of the world. You might not speak the same language, do things the same way, or even look the same, but once a fight starts, everyone understands who is right at the end.

Self Defense through violence

These days it's difficult for people to admit they are evil because the whole world will be against them, back in the day you had conquerors who will just want to take everything for themselves just because they could. If you tried that today, you will end up with millions of persons coming after you simply to prove you wrong and prove that they are the strongest. Now most persons hide behind self-defense to justify violent acts or evil which in turn protects them from being hated and targeted by self-righteous persons trying to defend an ideal of justice.

Just think about the scenario of a bully in a school, not many persons would be rooting for the bully, and he soon finds himself having to fight off a mob of persons who are defending justice. This is why you don’t see self-proclaimed evil persons trying to push their agendas, but they rather hide under the pretense of self-defense to do all sorts of evil. Since it's just self-defense, everybody can relate to that feeling of defenselessness.

Conclusion

Renouncing to war isn’t the way to avoid conflicts (in my opinion) and every situation is pretty unique, so a blanket statement can’t be made which will apply to everybody equally. In modern times we do have conflict management tools which have been elaborated for Millennia and which have proven to work, you better make use of those.

Proclaiming that you are never going to fight is just going to make you an easy target for the voracious minds of evil persons. Keep in mind that you don’t need to look for conflicts, they are already looking for you and when they come. Not fighting isn’t going to be the solution, but rather applying conflict management strategies before your animal instincts take over is going to be key. When you don’t have these intellectual skills, your only instinct will be to resort to violence.