Brute force, where overwhelming numbers are used to roll a smaller opposition on a battlefield or in a political debate, is at best a short-term solution.

It is also an easy option to use “brute force” in news reports, with the phrase appearing in mainstream media more than 300 times a month or twice that if web news is included.

“But at the World Memory Championships, the brute force power of the brain to store data is all that matters.” (Wired, January 28)

“Wheelchair Rugby was one of the major highlights of the London 2012 Paralympics, with players regularly hitting the front pages of the national newspapers. The game was founded in Canada in 1977 and was originally dubbed Murderball because of the brute force involved.” (Plymouth Herald, Devon, January 25)

“For all the talk about game plans, personnel and changing tactics, this was a match won because of brute force.” (Irish Independent, January 21)

“Canada is lucky to have police leaders like Chris Lewis, who understand that authority is more than brute force, and that police need to move carefully, lest they undermine the rule of law even as they try to uphold it.” (The Globe and Mail, January 19)

Chris Pash’s book, The Last Whale , a true story set in the 1970s about Australia’s last whaling station and the activists who fought to close it, was published by Fremantle Press in 2008.