fandomhigh | Resolving Conflict Without Violence, Wednesday First Period [Week 1]

Anne waited for the number of students in the room to match the number on the roster she'd been given, and then she waited a couple of additional minutes to allow for a bit of socializing before kicking off class. While she waited, she simply stood at the front of the room, calmly looking over the assembled teenagers. She looked pretty average, in fact, with her hair pulled back and her glasses, she might almost look like she had been a teacher forever. The only thing that might draw any attention was the fact that she was wearing a jacket despite the weather, and that the left sleeve hung empty at her side.

"Welcome," she eventually said, voice calm, but still subtly demanding attention. "This is Resolving Conflict Without Violence. As the name implies, we'll be examining non-violent approaches to dealing with conflict, and we'll primarily be doing that examination through practice. The first thing that many people will think of when they consider non-violent resolutions is debate, or discussion, and while we will be looking at a couple of alternative approaches, we will in fact be spending a lot of time in debate and discussion. If you don't have much experience with either of those, don't worry. It is practice that primarily concerns us, not necessarily performance."

"However, while I do value non-violent approaches to resolving conflicts, I will not claim that all conflicts can be solved using these approaches. It is the sad reality of things that violence is sometimes necessary." Her lips quirked in a slight smile and Anne sighed.

"That reality gives us an excellent topic for our first exercise as everyone has a different understanding regarding which situations can and can not be solved without resorting to violence. So, in order to get to know each of you better, I'd like you each to state your name, and describe either a situation that you know of that could not be solved without violence, or a situation that was resolved with violence but did not have to be."

She raised her right hand to her chest. "I shall go first. My name is Anne Mayer. An example of a situation which requires violence to resolve is one in which someone is actively engaging in a dangerous spree of violence themselves. Sometimes violence must be met with violence."

"And, as this is a class focused on discussion, please feel free to speak up at any time to ask for clarification, or suggest why someone's evaluation of the necessity of violence is in error." She fell silent, looking around the room in silent invitation for someone to do that with her own statement before nodding to a student to take their own turn.

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"State your name, and describe either a situation that you know of that could not be solved without violence, or a situation that was resolved with violence but did not have to be."

And be prepared for someone to debate the situation you present.

Hooo-boy. This was a doozy, now, wasn't it? It might have taken Summer a while to come up with an answer that didn't make her sound like she was absolutely batshit crazy. To be fair, her life was kind of batshit crazy, but that was beside the point. She was still a little tiffed about this class in particular, which she saw as a not-so-subtle hint about her behavior from the Galactic Federation.

She actually already believed in non-violence mostly. But the past few months had swayed her a bit differently, and she wasn't going to step in line just because the Federation expected it of her.

"My name is Summer Smith," she said, "and, this one time, my grandpa and I beat up my old business partner and former boss because he Zcukerberged me out. Violence was probably not at all necessary in that situation, but, man, it sure felt good."

Yeah, that was probably the tamest example she had.

Anne didn't appear upset by the answer, or even judgmental, she just nodded. "What did you gain through the use of violence that you could not have obtained via other means, and what did you give up on getting when you chose to utilize violence?"

"Well," Summer, for her credit, did pause to give it some really deep consideration, "I know I gained a lot of satisfaction and closure and some ~~desperately desired~~ bonding time with my grampa, but the only thing I gave up was a couple weeks of my time to train. And, I mean, I guess I burned that bridge business-wise, but I wouldn't want to work for that guy again, anyway."

"What about consequences for your interaction with other people? Are there people who are more anxious when dealing with you because they believe you to be prone to violence?" That wasn't always an outcome of violent resolution, but it could be, and was worth considering in Anne's book.

"Noooooo," said Summer, "not really."

It should be noted that this was a blatant lie. The whole reason she was here was because her parents thought she was treading a very dangerous line that would have very surely gone into violence. Most likely against her.

"Does it earn me anything if I point out that the guy I beat up was the devil?"

It was worth a shot.

Anne shook her head in bemusement. "For today's class, at least, I'm not especially interested in moral justification. Merely material consequences. While the morality of violence is an important factor to consider, I also believe that it is valuable to understand the purely utilitarian aspects of it as well."

"Anyway, given what you know now, with the benefit of hindsight, would you still choose the same path if you were confronted with a choice to solve this issue violently again?

Summer didn't even hesitate.

"Yes," she said. "Absolutely, one hundred percent yes."

No regrets!

"So it sounds like you might have been able to resolve things without violence, but choosing to utilize violence provided you with some benefits and no downsides that you care about." Did that about sum it up?

Summer went over it in her head to double check, and she nodded. "Yup, that's exactly right."

"Now that we've examined the utilitarian view, let's get back to that morality bit we skipped over earlier. You said that this guy was the devil, so I assume that you feel no guilt over what happened?"

Anne paused, giving Summer a chance to answer.

"What type of person would he have had to be for you to feel differently even if the outcome was pretty much the same?"

Resolving Conflict Without Violence, Wednesday First Period [Week 1]

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