Violence is the most elemental truth of life. It’s the central shaper of history, the ultimate determiner of whether A or B is going to get his way. When push comes to shove—as so much has a way of doing—all moral considerations go out the window and it all becomes a matter of who’s going to be the last man standing. The notion that we’ve made vast moral progress and are now a less violent species is belied by our awesome powers of destruction, our military might, police forces as well-armed as soldiers. Without the threat of such violent force behind it, all law would be meaningless.
