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Violence usually stems from the mistaken idea that human problems can be solved by inhumane means. This helps explain wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and elsewhere.

It also explains why the “Department of War” is blowing up Venezuelan drug boats. Our cultural fascination with violence helps explain assassinations, school shootings and why the National Guard is deployed on city streets.

The prevailing presumption is that destructive force can quickly and easily make things better. History shows that this is false. And morality condemns the use of immoral means in pursuit of moral ends.

Despite ugly outbreaks, violence remains rare. We notice violence and war because they are aberrations that surprise and appall. And despite its persistence, we have become wise to war’s stupidity.

Scholars like John Mueller and Steven Pinker have argued that humanity is becoming more civilized. Husbands no longer beat their wives with impunity. We no longer celebrate dueling. Slavery is illegal, as is corporal punishment.

The civilizing process echoes the wisdom of the advocates of nonviolence, like Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1967, King warned against a “descending spiral” of violence. He said, “Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.”

Violence is not creative or constructive. It does not persuade the rational mind. Nor does it recognize the complexity of the human condition. Rather, it provokes anger, hatred and reprisals.

Violence offers deceptively simple solutions to complex human problems. If a mosquito bites you, you swat it. But humans are not mosquitoes. We are precious beings with intrinsic value. Violence is immoral because it treats human beings as vermin to be destroyed. Unlike the mosquito, human beings demand respect and recognition. That’s why violence provokes resentment, retaliation and escalation.

The human problems that provoke violence demand that we think, rather than swat. Killing people you disagree with does not destroy their ideas. Blowing up boats does not stop the demand for drugs. And war does not address the human desire for stability, sovereignty and respect.

Primitive cultures celebrate brash ferocity and the spectacle of violence. Warrior kings ruled ancient empires using gruesome punishments like crucifixion. We have evolved to be better than that. Unfortunately, contemporary pop culture remains fixated on violent drivel in the form of superheroes and superspies. Those who marinate in a culture of violence may think that killing enemies also eliminates enmity. But this is not true. Rather, harshness creates hostility and cruelty causes further carnage.

Human spiritual development aims beyond violence. We are thinking beings who respond to persuasive arguments. We demand recognition of our humanity. And we desire justice and love. Physical force does not address those fundamental features of our humanity.

Human problems are not easily solved. We are not widgets waiting to be manipulated. Nor are we herd animals whose behavior can be modified by the application of pleasure and pain. Rather, we are free and creative beings. Our rational minds discover mysteries and wonders. Our emotional lives include unexplainable moods, loyalties and affections. Our freedom inclines us to rebel. And our creative energies lead us to invent and discover.

No human thing is simple or complete. We are complex and changeable. Love, for example, is a lifelong challenge. Lust and sex are animal problems, whose solutions are physical and obvious. But human love is an elaborate dance that depends upon the deliberate choice to orient your life toward the well-being of another. The same complexity is found in the pursuit of justice, which requires much more than physical force.

For our culture to improve, we need to continually affirm the complexity of our humanity while rejecting the stupidity of violence. We need to recall that “returning violence for violence multiplies violence,” as King said. We should study the sages of nonviolence, including Jesus, who even encourages us to love our enemies.

That proposal will sound absurd in a world of vermin. To say that enemies are worthy of love only makes sense if those enemies are human beings like ourselves, possessing intrinsic value. For human persons, love, justice, and truth are more powerful than violence.

Andrew Fiala is a professor of philosophy and director of The Ethics Center at Fresno State