Violence

Chaos is deadlier than tyranny. More […] multicides result from the breakdown of authority rather than the exercise of authority.

Matthew White, Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History, New York, 2011, p. xvii

The logic of the Leviathan can be summed up in a triangle. In every act of violence, there are three interested parties: the aggressor, the victim, and a bystander. Each has a motive for violence: the aggressor to prey upon the victim, the victim to retaliate, the bystander to minimize collateral damage from their fight. Violence between the combatants may be called war; violence by the bystander against the combatants may be called law. The Leviathan theory, in a nutshell, is that law is better than war.

Steven Pinker, The better angels of our nature: Why violence has declined, New York, 2011, p. 35

Conflict of interest is a social phenomenon unlikely to disappear, and potential recourse to violence and damage will always suggest itself if the conflict gets out of hand Man’s capability for self-destruction cannot be eradicated–he knows too much! Keeping that capability under control–providing incentives to minimize recourse to violence–is the eternal challenge.

Thomas C. Schelling and Morton H. Halperin, Strategy and arms control, Washington, 1985, p. 5