The utility of violence

I've adopted a specific principal from Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophy - Thou shalt not initiate the use of force against another. The key word here is "initiate". It's perfectly reasonable to defend one's self against the use of force or intimidation from another. In fact, since not doing so most often makes the overall situation worse, it could be considered a violation of the "Make it Better" principal.

When I was young I was prey, rather than predator. I was a good Catholic and believed that all violence was bad. In hindsight, this is very convenient because doing nothing is quite easy. Being receptive and cooperative toward bullies, of course, lead to more bullying. I eventually came to realize that fighting and losing was way better than just losing.

If you don't defend your own rights, how can I count on you to defend, or even recognize, mine? If you can't be counted on to defend the basic rights of others, why would others go to any effort to protect yours? Self-defense isn't just permissible, it's the right thing to do.

An objective analysis of my own experience with bullies is that the existence of violence in the world wasn't my problem. The fact that I wasn't any good at it, was.