The Violence Imperative
Published on Mar聽8, 2026, filed under philosophy, politics, misc. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon or on聽Bluesky.)
Whenever you witness or hear about violence, especially physical violence, you must immediately reject the need for it.
Reject any justification then given for that violence, even your own reasons.
Refuse any such justification outright.
Assume all reasons are lies.
This is the Violence Imperative.
What it does is re-sensitize us:
It catapults us away from accepting violence as given.
It makes us challenge the reasons given, if only in the most radical form (by rejecting them).
It wakes us up to the violence in our world.
Refuse to believe in any reasons for violence. By anyone.
The Violence Imperative can be reconciled with the Pacifist鈥檚 Dilemma, but I won鈥檛 elaborate here because it would dilute the point. I鈥檒l write about this separately, though in short, it works by learning to transcend contradictions.
About Me
I鈥檓 Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I鈥檓 an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I鈥檝e worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you use every day (like Google) and companies you鈥檝e never heard of, I鈥檓 an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O鈥橰eilly and Frontend Dogma.
I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also with respect to politics and philosophy. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my experiences and perspectives. (Please share feedback: Interpret charitably, but do be critical.)