You shouldn’t be so dismissive of the U of U threat. Utah has an incredibly high number of guns per capita, a lot of religious fundamentalists and the University wasn’t checking for concealed weapons which could easily have been carried into the lecture hall. It was one nut job away from a mass shooting.

However, I’m far more concerned by your opinions on power. To think that violence is the only true power is a very dangerous perspective to have. It’s also completely false. Violence is the lowest form of power. It’s dangerous and completely unsustainable- only for the very short sighted. The heiarchy of power is: force, threats, compulsion and inspiration.

To apply force to physically get what you want (murder, rape, burglary) is high-risk and a quick way to alienation as well as inviting others to apply force back. To threaten other to give you what you want or you will do something they don’t want is much more effective but only sustainable if there is a belief that force can and will be applied. And it still invites resistance which makes it dangerous.

REAL power comes from the other forms. They say that money is power but they’re only slightly missing the point. To compell is to give people something they want in exchange for something you want. This is how you make people slave for sixty hours a week for your cause. This is how you build skyscrapers. And you’ll never see a petty gunman do that with threats.

But the greatest of all power comes from inspiration- to convince someone to do what you want of their own volution. A building is made through compulsion but an empire is built when the people believe in the cause. A sense of duty, patriotism or simple belief, that is how you wield the power to make millions lie down their lives. But it has to be something that people feel is in their best interest. When wielded for evil, people will strap a bomb to their chest and murder for you. When wielded for good, people will face the greatest obstacles time and time again to help others.

So no, violence isn’t the only true power. It is the most guteral, the most crude and nowhere near what real power is.