Philosophy and Practice

[gate_crasher]

There's a lizard in the forum! A little shorter than average human height, his slight frame is draped in fine silk robes of deep blue, embroidered with thread-of-gold. The white scales of his snoot catch the light as they poke out of his hood, and his mouth opens in the occasional breath to reveal a row of small, pointy teeth. He paces for a while, composing his words, before he turns to address the passers-by.

"I am of the opinion that when a goal may be accomplished either by peaceful means or by force, peace is the better choice; if peace should fail, one may fall back on force, but if force is attempted first then there is little to no chance of peaceful means." He pauses a breath, as if to invite discussion or debate of this point, then continues. "I must however concede that there are times when peace is not an option, that a goal cannot be reached without some degree of applied violence. What I would like to know, in this place of diverse perspectives, is how you determine whether peace is an option for you, in a given situation--by what criteria do you measure? And, when force must be applied, how do you decide how much to use?"