A citizen’s highest duty is to defend his freedoms. Those freedoms from something and freedoms to do things. He must be prepared to defend them against threats from without and within. When the time to pick up the sword comes, he must be ready and able to use it. But when that time comes, he has failed. He has failed to find another way, a way to avoid bloodshed and death. When the time comes to pick up the sword, he must hate it. For violence means that all other recourses have failed. The citizen should not be seeking out violence, but rather he should seek a way to end it. Yes violence and war are necessary, for there are those who will not listen to talk of peace and freedom. But when it is over, the citizen should feel regret for what has been done. When the time comes to pick up the sword, he must hate it. Revenge should not be the primary cause behind which we rally, nor even justice, but the pursuit of freedom. The regret must come because violence is the last recourse, and not the first. Violence is a weakness, no decent individual should seek out violence. It should only be taken up as a last resort. When all other options have been exhausted. For when we take up the sword, we lose a part of ourselves. A part of us becomes like them, until we learn to enjoy the violence, enjoy the death, at which point we become like those who seek to destroy freedom. So, if we must take up the sword, we must hate it. For when we enjoy it, we must throw it away, or else have it taken from us. We must always remember our humanity, and the humanity of those we fight. They may seek to destroy our way of life, but they are still human. And that is why, if we must take up the sword, we must hate it.
-Demethenes