The American Revolution and Civil War weren't about high-falutin' ideals like liberty and justice, though those words have been bandied about. Those two conflicts were about economics and power, as all conflicts are. And violence is not only physical, it is economic and psychological as well (remember the impact of propaganda and brainwashing). The invocation of liberty and justice as ideals to seal the pact is a common occurrence but not the the root cause.

Beggaring someone by economic violence or psychologically violating someone by brainwashing or causing political change by passive resistance is violence, sure enough. I can remember wishing I would just be swatted or spanked and have it over with.