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Let’s Cure Violence—Using Willpower to Control our Electrons



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Bob Johnson

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DOI:10.17265/2159-5313/2026.01.007

Greater Manchester University, Bolton, UK

YOU CANNOT SUCCUMB TO CHOLERA, unless the sewage system breaks down—likewise deaths from violence vanish, as long as emotional support networks are working properly. Gut hygiene eliminates the one, societal hygiene the other. Cholera was an inexorable plague—until Germ Theory was accepted and implemented. Violence too, will persist—until we agree and accept its equivalent in Societal Theory.

The scientific method, especially Quantum Physics, sabotages philosophy—it cannot cope with the living fact that the elephant in the room is alive. Quantum Mechanics describes itself as being (1) more incomprehensible, (2) weirder, and (3) more uncertain than anything we’ve met before. But that’s chickenfeed, compared to what you find in clinical medicine, which though portrayed as being intrinsically woolly and subjective, wilfully aims to enhance life, whatever that might be.

This paper re-examines violence, its causes and cure, by first clarifying two entities—willpower and consciousness. These two defy our human reasoning far more succinctly than “Entanglement”, “Decoherence”, “Superposition”, or anything else that Quantum Mechanics can throw at us.

What’s the point of being ever so scientific, if your next politician takes no notice? What could be (1) more incomprehensible than squandering our bounty preparing to fight a world war, against ourselves, all over again? What’s (2) weirder than applauding trillionaires? Or (3) more uncertain than not knowing whether we have already melted our only two polar ice-caps, or not?

Curing violence, which this paper explores, requires willpower to be placed centre stage. Objective scientific evidence is readily available to do this, but it requires you to step outside your science lab, into your nearest self-respecting hospital. There you’ll find an EMG, an Electro-Myo-Gram. Fit one to your arm, and while resting, little happens. However, once you actively will your fist to clench, then the thing starts rattling away, 19 to the dozen. Whether your electrons disport themselves as waves or particles or both, is immaterial—if they do not do what you wilfully command them to, it’s not Quantum Theory that’s at fault—it’ll be your brachial plexus.

This is nothing short of action being initiated by willpower, and taking place in an everyday, non-subjective, observable way, that you’d think was obvious to all. Too often however, willpower is dismissed as being so unscientific, that it does not merit serious scientific consideration. Yet without it, violence will remain incurable. As for consciousness—it’s the most intriguing entity in the entire cosmos, but unhappily it is afflicted by blindspots, which alone allows violence to spread, like any other global contagion.

The paper has seven sections—(1) House Rules Corrupt Scientists. (2) The “Disbelief” House Rule. (3) The “Revenge” House Rule. (4) Non-fake-News. (5) Curing Fears. (6) Cementing Certainties. (7) Conclusion. Appendix—a lived experience, eloquently described.

In the 1890s, “Germ Theory” struggled to gain credence—today we would not be without it. Can we propagate “Societal Theory” to cope equally successfully with violence—in time?

consciousness, willpower, emotional blindspots, Quantum Mechanics, psychopathy, psychosis, crime, scams, bullies, war, civilisations-six-blindspots

Bob Johnson. (2026). Let’s Cure Violence—Using Willpower to Control our Electrons. Philosophy Study, Jan.-Feb. 2026, Vol. 16, No. 1, 86-99.