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Okay, I've thought about it. I agree that violence is a currency. It is a currency of power. But so are other things--knowledge, for example. And by that, I don't necessarily mean "the knowledge of truth." What I mean by this is "the knowledge of perceived truth." This "knowledge" is determined by those in power to those and disseminated to their subjects. Any behaviour that is aberrant to this "knowledge" would be subject to the discipline and punishments issued by those in power. This may or may not include violence, but in many cases it does.
Other currencies of power include: incarceration, deprivation, and abjection (or exemptions thereof). Violence, I would say, is amongst the most primal and powerful of currencies, but our evolution of the mind has set power up as a complex state unprecedented in any other species. Power is within us all to some extent, as we often have power over children and pets--violence sometimes being a way of upholding that power. One of the most powerful entities is the state. It is the most enriched by the currencies of power, violence being entrenched in police services and militaries.
Basically, those with the most power are those who control "knowledge" and have the capability of upholding it by means of discipline and punishment (or by other means), which can be carried out by such currencies as violence. There are, however, certain entities of power that don't require such a currency. The corporation, is an example. Gandhi's movement is another. These types of non-violent (or nearly) entities use other currencies to disseminate "knowledge" and uphold it. Some of these include: non-violent punishment, monetary rewards, dissent, and disobedience.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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