A Glimpse Into the Book
Three Dimensions of Violence
Violence has three dimensions—positive, negative, and neutral—in different proportions.
Positive Dimension: Violence may be used as self-defense by an individual, group, or nation. It may be justified to protect self, loved ones, neighbors, or nation. It may help enforce control over a situation temporarily.
Negative Dimension: Violence is against the law in our society. Usually, instead of controlling the situation, it escalates the situation. Violence provides false hope and assurance to help you achieve your desired goal. The best option may seem to be controlling a situation through the power of violence. You may go to jail and your activities in life will be restricted. You may have to pay restitution and penalty, which may take days, months, or even years to pay off. During a violent incident, your actions may even cost the loss of another’s life or your own.
Neutral Dimension: Violence does not guarantee you a positive or negative outcome. The neutral dimension—also like the positive dimension—helps individuals, groups, or nations to release emotional tension. It provides options such as negotiation, timeout, and acceptance to find long lasting remedies or solution.
If you would like to check the positive outcomes of the use of violence, place the positive, negative, and neutral dimensional effects in the angles of the triangle respectively. The triangle appears as follows:
In the above triangle, you will notice that the negative angle is larger than the positive and neutral angles, which means there are more negative outcomes than positive or neutral ones. Because the negative outcomes far outweigh the positive and neutral ones, we can conclude that the use of violence is not an effective method for resolving conflicts.