A Chinese MBA's Blog

As an anti-violence advocate, Martin Luther King, Jr. said that violence was "both impractical and immoral," and he believes that endurance, communication and compromise are more likely to lead to peace and reconciliation. Yet he did not provide the answer what one should do if he or she really meets an evil person or an evil organization that is using violence to harm others.

From this stand, it seems that what Malcolm X had said is reasonable. He did not regard the violence in self-defense as violence but treated it as "intelligence." His basic standpoint is that given there are also "plenty of bad people" who "seem to have all the power and be in the position to block things you and I need," men should "preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation."

However, more controversies come from Malcolm's narration. First, how and who could be the final judgment between right and wrong, or evil and good? America government treats Iran as an evil, but so does Iran to America. Second, under what circumstance could be defined as self-defense? Is it self-defense when America troops are entering Afghanistan? If true, how about the Iraq war? Just because of these conflicts, sometimes somebody will abuse Malcolm's theory and lead to unnecessary violence.

A motto in Chinese history says that, "I won't offend you if you don't offend me, but I will counterattack if and only if you attack me." It seems a little bit similar with Malcolm's faith, but there are still some differences. First, the parity principle regardless of the circumstance and judgment; second, an important implication is that never does the violence first; third, without denying of right of self-defense, the power of counterattack should be a means of frighten rather than revenge.   

Maybe here is a slight difference between the Eastern and the Western cultures. I still remember that every year some American politicians would show up and expressed their concerns about how much money, even the number was much smaller than that of America, which Chinese government would spend on military development. Without the permission of the U.N., without any evidence of massive weapons and without any reasonable reasons, the American government could "enter" Iraq under the name of freedom and revolution. That is not the logic of the Chinese, and the development of China's military power is just based on the principle of what the motto says. We will not attack the other country first and the main usefulness of nuclear weapon is to frighten the evils and maintain the peace.

If this theory could be applied to the movie of "Do the right thing," then first, Sal should not smash Radio Raheem's boom box with his baseball bat and it is a kind of violence. Although the atmosphere between him and Radio Raheem is very tense, it still goes within the limitation of oral conflict. Sal destroys the parity principle and uses violence first. Second, even after his music box was smashed by Sal- that is a non-physical violence- Radio Raheem should not fight with Sal, and that lead to a more dangerous physical violence. This time, Radio Raheem destroys the parity principle and upgrades the violence. Third, Mookie should not break the windows of Sal's pizza retail shop even he is in the outrage of the death of Radio Raheem, and that leads to a larger scale riot. If everyone understood the parity principle and never used the violence first, the conflicts in this movie could be resolved in a peaceful frame.

Violence is a dangerous action that could result in uncontrollable and unpredictable results and is a two-edge sword. Men should realize that violence should be used a bottom-line of counterattack power but not a weapon to beat others. No matter what happens, we must not forget what Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War, an immensely influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy, said. He told us that "To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."