The Violence Imperative

Published on Mar 8, 2026, filed under philosophy, politics, misc. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon or on 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.

On Waking Up

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’s Dilemma, but I won’t elaborate here because it would dilute the point. I’ll write about this separately, though in short, it works by learning to transcend contradictions.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager at various companies, including Google; I’m an open-source developer and a contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG); and I write and review books for O’Reilly 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, keep it friendly, but do be critical.)