211: Why We Train for Both Proportionality and Utility

Talk Back to Me

In violence, as in war, two concept stand in tension with one another: proportionality and utility. McMahan identifies one understanding of proportionality as "a constraint on action that causes harm." (Killing in War Pg 19). Utility, on the other hand, often functions as the context for informing one part of strategy, tactics, and techniques. We prioritize actions of these sorts that produce the desired outcome.

As such, the tension that exists between them is that they both must be accomplished or accommodated for the action to be considered moral, and further, both can be corrupted. Just as utility can lead to a might-makes-right worldview, and easily justify the absolute eradication of a warring people group, so the idea of proportionality is corrupted if we cease to believe some of those in conflict are less than human.

One part of the solution, or the developed skill of managing this tension comes from training. As we have seen in Gun Culture, those who train are rarely, if ever, the ones who participate in senseless violence. It is the untrained, who are both quick to call for the death of their accused oppressors, and it is the untrained who respond to a smaller conflict with overwhelming force.

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