“Existence is violent, I exist, therefore I'm violent… in that way.”

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "Existence is violent, I exist, therefore I'm violent… in that way." by Huey P. Newton?
Huey P. Newton photo
Huey P. Newton 29
Co-founder of the Black Panther Party 1942–1989

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Context: State and government are the social apparatus of violent coercion and repression. Such an apparatus, the police power, is indispensable in order to prevent anti-social individuals and bands from destroying social co-operation. Violent prevention and suppression of anti-social activities benefit the whole of society and each of its members. But violence and oppression are none the less evils and corrupt those in charge of their application. It is necessary to restrict the power of those in office lest they become absolute despots. Society cannot exist without an apparatus of violent coercion. But neither can it exist if the office holders are irresponsible tyrants free to inflict harm upon those they dislike.

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“I think I exist, therefore I exist. I think.”

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“I dream, therefore I exist.”

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“I fight, therefore I exist.”

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No clear citations of this to Ben-Gurion have been located. A very early variant of this idea (which plays upon the statement of René Descartes "Cogito ergo sum" — "I think, therefore I exist") is found in Die Weimarer Reichsverfassung http://books.google.gr/books?id=VRBAAAAAYAAJ&q= (1922) by Leo Wittmayer, p. 255, a work about the Weimar Constitution, where Wittmayer speaks against the attitude, while stating it in Latin: "bello ergo sum".
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“But there is another way. And that is to organize mass non-violent resistance based on the principle of love.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)
Context: But there is another way. And that is to organize mass non-violent resistance based on the principle of love. It seems to me that this is the only way as our eyes look to the future. As we look out across the years and across the generations, let us develop and move right here. We must discover the power of love, the power, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that we will be able to make of this old world a new world. We will be able to make men better. Love is the only way.

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