Sage

hrm....

Personally, I think that if one takes the stance of total pacificism, then they give up their right to control their own personal space. If someone comes at you, mad, about to punch you, and you just take it, then you are in effect reenforcing that person's mindset that they can do what they want when they want. However, I don't advocate coming out swinging right away- discussion is always a good idea. That being said, if someone was about to punch Martel you can bet your ass I'd have them on the ground ASAP. I think that "a little bit of violence" in that situation, ie- knocking them to the ground, is much better than just beating them up because they were going to beat you up.

Also, some people don't respond to anything but violence. If North Korea were to have nuclear warheads and say they were going to fire them in X days if the US didn't do Y, well... you couldn't exactaly sit down with their leaders and say "Please don't bomb us." Same thing with some asshats- you just have to let them know you're not a pushover.

__________________