ABSTRACT
The first and most important responsibility of the state is to protect its citizens and their goods against unjust use of force. A blanket rejection of the use of force and its uncompromising demonization are deleterious to order, the state and humanity. This chapter briefly clarifies the strategic use of the theme of "violence" for political purposes and focuses on the core of the matter: the causes of the spread of community-harming behavior— insofar as they relate to education— and discusses the means available to respond to it. The pressure of imperfect life circumstances is referred to as "structural violence", and environmental damage as "violence against nature". The originally understood concept of physical violence has long since been expanded with the concept of so-called "psychic violence" or "mental violence". The capability for self-control according to prevailing norms depends on value-attitudes, mental performances and acts of will that are chiefly attributable to learning processes.
