In an environment of scarce goods inhabited by a plurality of actors whose lives are intertwined, the assertiveness of one confronts the assertiveness of the other, and therefore the one becomes a perceived or real threat to the other. Mostly, the threat is not so much to the life of the other as to her boundaries and therefore also to her inner organization of the self (Härle 1995, 469f.). This is the point at which the healthy assertiveness of the self often slides into violence toward the other.
