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This article is from the Lawful Arrest/Search/Seizure FAQ, by Ahimsa Dhamapada ahimsa@mu.clarityconnect.net with numerous contributions by others.

3.9: Do I have a right to defend myself?

While this may seem simple and obvious, it isn't, because
warring parties often disagree as to who struck the first
blow. One side may call it the first attack. While the
other side calls it a retaliatory strike in "self-defense".
Wars almost always escalate until one side is destroyed,
and in a nuclear war, there may be no winners.

If the right to self-defense does exist, it should be
exercised with great restraint. Gandhi taught that we
should better suffer the blows of our attackers than to
strike them and risk resembling/becoming creatures of
violence ourselves, which of course we aren't!

 

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• prev: 3.8: What is a license?
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• next: 3.10: Do "property rights" exist in nature?

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