So I've been thinking about violence in the form of personal safety, self-defense, and to hold your own from tyranny. Naturally, I am sure that anyone would stand up and defend his/her self in a situation of violence with an attack from an opposition.

But, the path of non-resistance--'resist not evil'--tells us to literally resist all forms of violence, evil, and retaliation in spite of personal attack, integrity, and even death.

'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind'

Now, I believe in the second amendment. We have the right to self-defense. I am sure, in the future, if any doom happens, that many of you agree with me that holding your own with a weapon will prove venerable.

But, I have been reading some of Leo Tolstoy's book 'The Kingdom of God is Within You'--so far it has been about the path of non-resistance and avoiding to follow the governments rules of violence. Here is an interesting, cool quote:

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' "How ought a subject to behave who believes that war is inconsistent with his religion (beliefs or values also) while the government demands from him that he should enter military service?

His duty is humbly but steadfastly to refuse to serve.

There are some people, who, without any definite reasoning about it, conclude straightaway that the responsibility of government measures rests entirely on those who resolve on them, or that the governments and sovereigns decide the question of what is good or bad for their subjects, and the duty of the subjects is merely to obey.

I think that arguments of this kind only obscure mens conscience. I cannot take part in the councils of government, and therefore I am not responsible for its misdeeds. Indeed, but we are responsible for our own misdeeds. And the misdeeds of our rulers become our own, if we, knowing that they are misdeeds, assist in carrying them out. Those who suppose that they are bound to obey the government, and that the responsibility for the misdeeds they commit is transferred from them to their rulers, deceive themselves.

They say: "We give our acts up to the will of others, and our acts cannot be good or bad; there is no merit in what is good nor responsibility for what is evil in our actions, since they are not done of our own will." '

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What do you think? In the times ahead, is it okay, or necessary to resist violence with violence?

Do we avoid a possible draft because we know it is wrong?

Do we let others take our life in the name of holding on to our virtues of love?