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The Quest For Political Power Through Violence
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1.7 EXPLICATIONS OF TERMS.
Definition of violence
Violence
has become so strife in the world today that little or no attention is
attracted wherever it transpires. Every aspect of human life in this
world is affected by this canker worm such that, for some people, it has
become an impasse. It becomes an ulcerous cancer to the society in both
cultural, religious, economical, social, psychological, and more
especially, political spheres that peaceful and harmonious co-existence
among men seems to be an illusion for some people. Violence just like
time is not easy concept to define. For Arendt, “violence is by nature
instrumental; like all means, it always stands in need of guidance and
justification through the end it pursuesâ€[18].From the Latin word
violentiameaning “impetuosity†is the term violence derived. It denotes
excessive force or constraint. According to Oxford Advance Learner’s
Dictionary, violence is……a behavior intended to hurt or kill; strong
feeling that is uncontrolled.[19]Arendt advocated that violence can be
justifiable, but it never will be legitimate. Its justification loses in
plausibility the farther it intended and recedes into the future.[20]In
other words, violence makes a beast of the perpetrator and a thing of
the persecuted.
Various Forms of Violence
Generally speaking, violence can be classified into two broad forms: internal (covert) and external (overt) violence.
Internal
violence refers to the disharmony or peacelessness which one suffers in
his interior self. It is this type of violence that St. Paul succinctly
alluded to in his turmoil and thus cried thus: the good things I want
to do, I never do; the evil thing which I do not want-that is what I
do.[21] This kind of violence is most observed in confused individuals
and showcased externally in their relationship with their fellow man in
the society. In the same vein, external violence refers to every kind of
conflict or disharmony which apart from happening within the individual
goes beyond the internal realm to have an external manifestation in
man’s dealings with one another. Analogically, it could be regarded as a
kind of volcanic eruption which after burning beneath the earth under a
very high temperature explodes in the form of molten magma forming a
mountain as a lasting impression, mangling whatever it comes in contact
with. It is this kind of violence that is regarded as external
violence.[22]
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 6]
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