Ethical violence
Nature
Ethical violence is violence that, though dangerous, has become legitimised and accepted by a community as permissible or even necessary. One example is that war has come to be accepted as morally legitimate. There are other examples of brutality that is accepted and even celebrated by different sides.
Claim
Leaders may have rational reasons (moral or self-interested) for going to war. Yet solidarity, heightened emotion and even irrationality might also be required to ignite the popular will to wage war, with all its sacrifices and brutalities.
The late 20th century saw the fitful development of the view that wars must not be fought for a state’s general political or economic interests, but only in self-defence. This shut the front door to war only to allow it in through the back. Today we only have defensive wars.
Counter-claim
It is a basic moral tenet and enduring concept in ethics that life is sacred and worthy of respect. So how might the known, intentional killing of thousands of human beings, such as in a war, be morally accepted? Or even seen as rational? If we truly acknowledged the ethical value of all human life (including that of our enemies), war would not be possible.