I don't know whether there are any absolutes in this domain.
My own feeling is that you should not allow yourself to be bullied or intimidated, because this does tremendous damage to your psyche. It is better to be measured, but forthright - even if it leads to violence, than to allow yourself to be cowed by someone using aggression as a weapon.
I remember when I was much younger, maybe 14 or 15, not standing up to someone who was being aggressive towards me, and to this day, I can still get quite pissed off at having been intimidated like this, and my own cowardice in response to it.
I'm sure it was part of the catalyst for my boxing career, and joining the military. It is one thing to balance the pros and cons of a situation and to walk away from conflict. That's prudent and mature, regardless of which outcome you opt for. However, it is quite another thing to allow cowardice to motivate your actions, and drive you towards a particular course of action that you then attempt to justify to yourself as prudence. I think the consequences of that are really very serious, and should be vehemently resisted, even if it may come at some physical cost.
There's very little call for real conflict in day to day life. Most normal men will go a life time without ever actually coming close to it. Should that day come though, and should you behave like a coward, I think you'll find that it can completely blow apart your sense of self and leave you with a very deep and lasting wound. We are all the heroes of our own stories, and to behave in an archetypically unheroic manner could pull you apart at the seams.
My own feeling is that you should not allow yourself to be bullied or intimidated, because this does tremendous damage to your psyche. It is better to be measured, but forthright - even if it leads to violence, than to allow yourself to be cowed by someone using aggression as a weapon.
I remember when I was much younger, maybe 14 or 15, not standing up to someone who was being aggressive towards me, and to this day, I can still get quite pissed off at having been intimidated like this, and my own cowardice in response to it.
I'm sure it was part of the catalyst for my boxing career, and joining the military. It is one thing to balance the pros and cons of a situation and to walk away from conflict. That's prudent and mature, regardless of which outcome you opt for. However, it is quite another thing to allow cowardice to motivate your actions, and drive you towards a particular course of action that you then attempt to justify to yourself as prudence. I think the consequences of that are really very serious, and should be vehemently resisted, even if it may come at some physical cost.
There's very little call for real conflict in day to day life. Most normal men will go a life time without ever actually coming close to it. Should that day come though, and should you behave like a coward, I think you'll find that it can completely blow apart your sense of self and leave you with a very deep and lasting wound. We are all the heroes of our own stories, and to behave in an archetypically unheroic manner could pull you apart at the seams.