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7.8] The Nature of Violence
173 The answer is that as long as higher values do not enter human society's thoughts and behaviors, there is no significant difference in the interactions between human society and other living beings. Like animals and birds, uncivilized humans, driven by their mental tendencies, knowingly or unknowingly take the lives of other beings for life's necessities or even without any necessity. In this primary state of violence in human society, when a few individuals become aware of the nature of violence, they denounce existing violence as wrongful and inspire others not to take lives. On one side are the old values of practices like violence, and on the other side, the new sentiment of non-violence arises. Conflicts arise between these two, and various questions begin to emerge in front of the proponents of non-violence. In summary, there are three questions:
1. The supporters of non-violence do sustain life, and since life cannot be maintained without some form of violence, should the violence they commit be condemned or not?
2. Until ignorance and error are entirely proven to be absent in human tendencies, it is possible for supporters of non-violence to unintentionally or mistakenly cause someone's death; will such a killing be considered a fault of violence or not?
3. Sometimes, a person with a non-violent disposition attempts to save someone or provide them pleasure and comfort, but the outcome is the opposite, meaning the one they intended to save ends up losing their life. Will this death be considered a fault of violence or not?
When such questions arise, the consideration of the nature of violence and non-violence becomes serious. As a result, the meanings of violence and non-violence expand significantly. Taking a life or causing some suffering to someone was traditionally understood as violence, while not taking a life and causing someone pain was deemed non-violence. However, the thinkers of non-violence have carefully deliberated and concluded that it cannot be said that only taking lives or causing suffering carries a fault of violence, because alongside killing or causing suffering, one must also consider the intention of the doer to determine the fault or innocence of violence.