Kevin's Weblog

I recently got pointed to the essay One Less Act of Violence by Cheri Huber. I found myself really agreeing with the philosophy espoused there, although not with the particular context. (I’m not sure why no moral vegetarion ever seems to acknowledge or address the question of why plants are less worthy than animals, but that is beside the current point.) In short, the idea is that if you adopt a philosophy of non-violence, you shouldn’t beat yourself, or anyone else, up over your, or their, shortcomings. This isn’t to advocate complete non-action; on the contrary, awareness and education are stressed with the belief that these will, over time, inexorably lead to personal change.

I find this idea quite appealing, and it’s in line with how I’d ideally like to interact with people. On the other hand, it’s a pretty tough philosophy for an INTJ to actually implement, given our tendency to put high expectations on others, and even higher expectations on ourselves. Even “leading by example” connotes a desire to change others, which can lead to this sense of violence: pummelling the led with examples, and distressing the leader when it doesn’t acheive the desired effect.

I guess that there is a big question of whether this sort of philosophy can any hope of being useful in a typical corporate culture. I’ll need to give that some more though.