So what you're trying to say is that when someone challenges you to a fight, you do have to fight them? Mate, violence will get you nowhere in life except maybe a night in the cells and a visit to A&E. I've been in fights before, and I've realized how stupid I was to participate in them. It takes more of a man to walk away from a fight. It might sound like a stupid saying, but it takes a lot of guts and determination to do it...

And what if they had you cornered, in a situation where walking away isn't possible and are willing to beat you up or planning to kill you, then what? Would you choose death?

Hey, if Violence was never an answer, then their would be no "last resort" for someone to use violence. However, in a last resort, violence and surrender are the only answers you can choose from and surrender is not really an option for you. In this case, Violence is an answer and will always be an answer. Therefore, my claim that "believing that violence is never and answer, is foolish" still stands.

Some people may think you have guts for walking away but, just so you know, if you walk away from some fights (the more threatening), you may not have guts by the next day…and I mean that literally.

AzH is right, people aren't challenged to fights, it just happens. And alcohol is usually the cause. If some drunk bloke does come up to you and comes at you, if you do turn and calmly walk away you're very likely to get a bottle around the back of the head. Of course you could avoid fights completely, but that would involve never ever going out and socializing, and you'd especially have to avoid places like pubs and clubs.

Okay, first, where do you get off telling me how young or naive I act? For your information I'm 19, I've been out of school for almost four years now and I'm certainly no 'throwback' from Victorian England.

Secondly, where you live affects what happens, trust me. If I happened to live in a city like London then, yeah, I can agree with the scenario about some guy just taking a pop without challenging you. I, however, don't live near any cities or big towns. I live in a small village in the middle of fucking nowhere where, if someone isn't involved, then they won't get involved. If someone in the same pub/room as you has a problem with the way you're talking then they'll ask you to leave before taking a punch or two at your face. This isn't really common, but around here we have respect for other people who just want to sit down for a quiet drink. Call us old fashioned or whatever you want, but that's how it is. I still think that fighting for the sake of fighting is wrong, however.

I think people just assume your age from the relative maturity of your posts, or anyones' posts for that matter.

You can't honestly expect to live your life without ever entering a town or city can you? Lets be realistic here, living in 21th century Britain, you are never far away from a potential fight. That's not to say that its a completely violent country, it's just a fact of life that where people socialize and drink, there are fights. And I'd much rather live in the 'real' world than see mine through rose-tinted glasses.

And if you'd bothered to read through my post, then you'd have read that I have been in fights in the past. I've come off worse in a fair few, and come off the victor in others - but I've since grown up and got past the stage where, if someone pisses me off, I automatically think 'LOL BARFIGHT TIME' or some other crap like that. If someone has said something rude/offensive/demeaning to me or one of my friends, I'd actually stop them and ask why they said it in the first place and bargain with them for an apology, and 80% of the time it actually works. I'm sick of this 'thuggish' reputation Britain seems to be gaining.

No, what I'm saying is that you're stupid to think that people actually get challenged to fights.

'Let's take this outside, shall we?'

'Nay!! Pistols at dawn, you rascal!!'

Sorry pal, but that's not how thw world works anymore. You're either incredibly young, incredibly naive or a throw back from Victorian England when words like 'Honour' actually meant something. If someone takes a disliking to you in a pub the chances are they're not going to ask you to step outside and abide by the rules of bare knuckle boxing. Instead, fuelled by alcohol, their going to go for you there and then. It isn't a case of denying a challenge, it's a case of fighting off some guy who wants to eat your eyeballs. In such a situation - which happens every weekend up and down the land - your choices are thus:

Fight or flight.

And considering flight would be through a crowd of other drunk people so you ain't going to fly very far, it leaves fight as the only option.

Echonomix, people don't challenge other people to fights in the real world. You'll learn this when you get out of school.

I get off on telling you how young or naive you act because you act young and naive if you think that you can walk away from a fight in a bar. Sorry, but I assumed you had never been to one in order to think that you can just say "sorry mate" and they'll say "oh, okay then, buds?" "yeah, buds!"

Not the way it works. Apologies if I got your age wrong, young 'un. ;)

I don't do fights. I would try not to provoke people or look for a fight. If somebody would be looking for a fight I would walk away.

Only if I couldn't walk away and would be forced to do something or be beaten up would I use force to defend myself.