RE: Is violence really avoidable?
In terms of bullying, I personally feel you have to stand up for yourself and get the courage to face them. It sucks but like most others have mentioned that if you get parents and teachers involved, then the child will be pointed out, humiliated, and even more would possibly be bullying/harassing him/her. I am not saying violence is right, not by a long shot. But let's face it, humans are still beasts and we are barely out of the jungle. It's our nature to be either aggressive or run. Fight or flight. I will admit it takes more courage to be the better person and just walk away and take the hits (physically and/or mentally) but will it actually solve it?
When I was in junior high school a kid who I thought was my friend, snapped at me when I made a joke about him. Mind you, I joked about everyone in our group of friends, even myself. So I would like to THINK I wasn't the bully. But after I made the joke he threw me up against the wall and held a sharp pencil to my neck (the only sharp thing he had). I didn't do anything except look at him surprised but at the same time, confident. I knew he wasn't going to do anything to me in front of everyone (it was at lunch) but it took the lunch supervisors to take him off me. Did the school punish him for what he did? No. Did they do anything for me? No. School punishments and authority is a joke here in the USA. Because now if teachers or anyone get's involved in a fight or something, they could be sued, given a fine, fired, etc. So no I don't think that you can rely on others even if they are supposedly there for you. You have to defend and fight for yourself sometimes; whether it be violent or not, it needs to come down to what you want and if you are willing to take that type of disrespect from someone or not.
Now to talk about violence in GENERAL. I highly doubt it is avoidable, unless everyone in the entire world never raised a hand against another ever again for the rest of human civilizations existence. And if so, there will always be one person who will abuse the passiveness of others for their own wants. Don't get me wrong, Mahatma Gandhi is one of my heroes and someone I admire and I believe the way he fought his fight was a prime example of what non violence protest can do. That said, what if America and all of the countries who fought against Nazi Germany in WWII (Minus Russia because of what they did but that's a different story for another time) decided to just roll over and not fight against Germany? Do you really think that Germany would have stopped?! I highly doubt it.
Violence is the only method to use against people committing genocides. Especially if you are the victims of genocide. The group who is committing it wants your kind dead and you don't push back, guess what? They are fine with that, it helps further their crazy brain-washing ideas that you are worthless and deemed not fit to live.
It's sick but true. I wish there was a different way to stop it. It's like that one quote I heard: Why do we kill others who kill others to show that killing is bad?
I don't feel we should all be full-blown violent and if you don't like someone or something, just go and beat someones face in until it's hamburger meat. I feel that talking and discussion should come first but if it doesn't solve anything, screw trying to appease it, you gotta go fight it.
"We All Make Choices. But In The End, Our Choices Make Us."
-Andrew Ryan