Violence - Its Goals
Let us study what violence really is, why we become violent, and what we achieve by that. Violence really means unlawful exercise of physical force, or it may be even verbal abuses. Now, let us analyze why we become violent; mostly it has been seen that we become violent when we do not get what we want, or what we demand: whether our demand is right or wrong is a different matter. Maybe, in this context it can be said that, at least sometimes, we do get excited and resort to violence without having enough reason or provocation. However, it is equally true that, sometimes, there really is no other way to present our demands.
Sometimes I feel that violence may be justified for instance when our demands are genuine, but, even after many requests they are not given an ear to, so we just have to resort to violence in order to make ourselves be heard by the authorities concerned. It is only our frustration in not being heard that makes us take up the cudgels in a violent manner. However, if we coolly analyze the achievement after a lot of hullabaloo we will surely notice that, we rarely return with a long-standing solution to our problems. Our bouts of violence only lead us to discontent, discord, destruction and even death. Thus, if we analyze with an attitude of understanding, we will mostly realize that violence is not a real achiever.
Another flaw in being violent is that, when we are violent, we can only plan destruction. This is because our violent
Society has been facing many difficulties for the past years that are contributing to the expansion of violence. In order to understand why some people practice violence behavior, it is extremely important to know and understand about the cycle of violence. According to Chauhan and Widom (2014), the cycle of violence can be defined as follow; the act that an individual who was previously physically, mentally and/or emotionally abused will repeat the same maltreatment to another person (s) in the future. In some words, the cycle of violence support the idea that people who were abused in any way when they were
“The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is to a more violent world” (Arendt pg 80). Violence is contagious, like a disease, which will destroy nations and our morals as human beings. Each individual has his or her own definition of violence and when it is acceptable or ethical to use it. Martin Luther King Jr., Walter Benjamin, and Hannah Arendt are among the many that wrote about the different facets of violence, in what cases it is ethical, the role we as individuals play in this violent society and the political aspects behind our violence.
For as long as humanity has existed, men have committed violence against one another. Assuredly, Nancy G. Guerra’s and Lyndee Knox’s entry on violence in the Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice affirms that, “As historical and cross-cultural records demonstrate, our evolutionary history is laced with examples of violence. Indeed, paleontological data reveal a rather continuous stream of human violence dating back thousands of years.” It is clear that violence is a part of human nature that has always existed and will likely never be eradicated. One of the aspects that all forms of violence seem to share is that, societally (in terms, at the very least, of Western societies), they are looked down upon. Consequentially, those who commit violent
If human beings are a part of nature, it can be assumed that they too have violent tendencies; in that respect, violence is a natural and innate response. Though we pride ourselves on being able to control these urges, they are always lurking somewhere beneath the surface of our most serene and civilized moments.
Violence is one of the most exaggerated forms of physical aggression and it can exist for a series of reasons. It involves a person or a group of persons acting against another person or groups of persons with the purpose to achieve one or several diverse goals. In many cases violence results from individuals perceiving the acts of other people as hostile and thus wanting to act against these people before it is too late. Depending on the situation, more or less individuals might get involved in an act of violence, especially when they consider that it would be essential for them to do so.
Mahatma Gandhi, a renowned political and spiritual leader, once said that, “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.” Presume you see two men in a heated argument and one of them is about to attack the other, you take a rock and throw it at him and knock him out. On one hand it is a good thing that you prevented the attack but on the other hand you used violence yourself, and there is no doubt that you would not hesitate to use it again. The good that came from the violence that you used lasted for a short time, but the punishment that you get for doing this lasts for a long time. Imperialism of rivalries and nationalism were two of the main reasons that most
Violence is an unavoidable terror that has played one of the, if not the most, important roles in all of history. Without violence, lands wouldn’t be conquered, empires wouldn’t fall, and people wouldn’t have any limits or restrictions. The French Revolution is one example of a violent uprising because the people of France revolted against the rule of King Louis XVI by raiding, storming, and slaughtering for their natural equal rights. The revolution marked the end of a government ruled by monarchy and the start of the Republic of France. One important reason of why the revolution was successful in bringing political change was because it was violent.
On January 17, 2017, “Surge in the Violence” was released by the Crime lab at the University of Chicago, which had combined a report on the statistics of homicides taken place in the year 2015 and 2016. The number of homicides taken place in the year of 2016 has soared by record high of 67 percent than the previous year. Chicago is one of the busiest and advanced cities in the world and getting such high numbers in the field of crime is a shame and leaves a bad impression on the rest of the world. The violence related to guns has also increased enormously and according to “Chicago Tribune”, 2,958 people have been shot dead by now this year. Though the data shows that the homicides by gun has decreased significantly but the number is still a problem. The gun violence now is a serious problem and the current situation demands strict gun laws.
amount of the violence. My children at times were abused for defending me. I knew
There are two sides to many things, one could argue that there are two sides to everything. Violence is not excluded from this argument. The two possible sides, or viewpoints, that are a result of violence can easily be seen as extremes of either side. One side could argue that violence is something that is necessary and the other argue that violence is only a tool for destruction. People who insist that violence is necessary in order to move forward view it as a way to sway the outcome to their benefit. For those who see violence as a cowardly tactic to control people, violence is a useless display of power and dominance. Yet violence has also been a way to defend oneself from people who pose a threat. This can lead people who have good
You must also take a look at the reasons for violent acts and what constitutes as such. In the “Meanings of Violence” by Dov Cohen and Joe Vandello, they examine the difference in the meaning of insults between the Southerners and Northerners in the United States. They talk about the importance in social status and the concept that anthropologist have called “Culture of Honor”. With the concept individual is based on their social position and how tough they are or what courage they carry. There is also the idea that if a persons social standing in reduced for whatever reason that there is belief that violence could be used to restore their position. The idea of culture-of-honor is that an incident may occur over something as “trivial” as being glanced at wrongly, or showing a threatening insult. The individuals may not see it as being a trivial circumstance but a threat to stand their ground and prove their
Violence is one of the most necessary elements to life. It can be as vital as water, and as regenerating as a long deserved sleep. It is the ultimate balance to the human life. Violence is possibly one of the most perverted and tainted virtues that exists today. Like all values, there is a time and place for them. The hardest part of any virtue is its proper administration.
History has been, and continues to be, revolved around the concept of violence. Violence is an unescapable subject that people, leaders, and countries are faced with whenever any conflict occurs. Everyone has their own opinion on whether or not violence is the solution to every problem. Specifically looking at Mohandas Gandhi’s Satyagraha, Frantz Fanon’s chapter titled “Concerning Violence” from his novel The Wretched of the Earth, and Benito Mussolini’s “The Doctrine of Fascism”, we gain a clear understanding whether or not they supported the use of violence and what their objectives were within their time period. Although Gandhi, Fanon, and Mussolini acknowledge violence as a widely used force to deal with political, social, and economic
Violence is an issue in human nature. Everyone has their own definition and their own interpretations of violence. The big question is if the world is still growing in its violent nature, or is it finally reaching its solemn, peaceful generation. The evolution of violence has grown in many different paths from survival of the fittest, genocide, slavery, etc. According to Steven Pinker’s article “Violence Vanquished,” he explains how the world is entering an era of peace because we do not deal with the same violence our ancestors did in the past. That is true. We abolished slavery, stopped brutal wars, and revolutionized with strategies such as commerce. Pinker analyzes his arguments very well, but negates common issues of violence that we still
The history of human nature has been bloody, painful, and even destructive. Nonetheless, before understanding their environments humans used to kill each other based on their own mindset on the ideal of violence, and what it actually meant. Pinker describes narratives of violent acts from the past, that today are foreign to us. He gives us a tour of the historical human violence and how the violence in human nature has changed throughout time. The main idea from Pinker’s book,“The Better Angels of Our Nature ', is “for all the dangers we face today, the dangers of yesterday were even worse.” He provides its readers with explicit violent stories beginning from 8000 BCE to now, and describes how violence has evolved from a blood lost to more of a peaceful existence.