Comedian Jerry Seinfeld realized early in his career it is easier to deal with a heckler by using therapy instead of ‘verbal weaponry’ and counter attack. In a post from a ‘non-violence’ site, Seinfeld was quoted as saying:
“Very early on in my career, I hit upon this idea of being the Heckle Therapist. So that when people would say something nasty, I would immediately become very sympathetic to them and try to help them with their problem and try to work out what was upsetting them, and try to be very understanding with their anger. It opened up this whole fun avenue for me as a comedian, and no one had ever seen that before. Some of my comedian friends used to call me – what did they say? – that I would counsel the heckler instead of fighting them. Instead of fighting them, I would say “You seem so upset, and I know that’s not what you wanted to have happen tonight. Let’s talk about your problem” and the audience would find it funny and it would really discombobulate the heckler too, because I wouldn’t go against them, I would take their side.”
Maybe this would work in the world troublespots – instead of engaging in huge military and human life expenditure – Jerry may be on to something here.