I heard a snatch of Stan Rogers' song: "Goin' Down to Old Maui" and had no idea of who wrote it or what else he may have written until I was at a party and mentioned the snatch of song and was leant a tape of "Between The Breaks". Immediately learned it and "Barrett's Privateers" for singing while hiking. Stan's voice had the earthy low tones and his lyrics the historic range and maritime slant I'd associated with Gordon Bok.

As for the theme of peacefulness versus violence in everyday life, I think the song is a consistent look at the situation just as the theme crops up again and again in the songs mentioned in this thread, and such films as "High Noon" "Shane" and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". It is a basic American theme of how to be a civilized man without being a pushover, along with the allied observation that it's easier to make a peaceful man violent than the other way around.