Abstract

Suggests that the form of violence, its direction and purpose, and the conditions that start and end it, are determined mainly by the degree of hope or hopelessness giving rise to it. Violence is defined as an action whose intent is to harm another person. "Emotional violence" is an effort to reduce anxiety, which if successful arouses hope. "Instrumental violence" is directed at a specific goal in a more dispassionate manner. Societies should find moral equivalents to these 2 forms of violence; social changes that decrease the effectiveness of instrumental violence may reduce emotional violence.