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» Ship of Fools   »   » Oblivion   » What is it with violence?

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Source: (consider it) Thread: What is it with violence?
no prophet's flag is set so...

Proceed to see sea
# 15560

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This thread may be misplaced. But I didn't want a purgatorial argumentative type of thread. Hosts please guide as you always do.

I have a bad history of violence done to self when young at school, continue to deal with aftermath of violence to one of my adult children, and, now, we hear this evening of an attack on another adult child, this one of a co-worker and friend.

Is there something basically wrong with human nature? I don't think I'm asking about the biblical fall or the specific adaptive biological mechanisms, rather, what has gone wrong with what seems to be the thin veneer of civilization that allows people to revert to being mere self serving animals. I wonder, if anyone really knows; which seems like the cry of anguish that rings down the centuries of our human history: of assaults, of murders, of wars. It makes one wonder if there is any hope for us at all within this physical universe. And the skewing of perception from the violence to seemingly negate goodness. Any reflections?

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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/

Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010  |  IP: Logged
Raptor Eye
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# 16649

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I wonder whether it's also a lack of self-control as we react to life, as well as self-service, eg when invading land for gain, which combine to cause the violence you are talking about No Prophet.

It could be that goodness and civilisation are defined only in contrast to the alternative. This might therefore mean they will increase as time goes on, albeit with hiccups, so that there is real hope for humanity.

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Be still, and know that I am God! Psalm 46.10

Posts: 4359 | From: The United Kingdom | Registered: Sep 2011  |  IP: Logged
no prophet's flag is set so...

Proceed to see sea
# 15560

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That's an optimistic thought. I have been feeling more pessimistic about it lately: that human nature is pretty static, and there is only a mild difference over time if any. Also was thinking of Victor Frankl's report of Nazi camps, that there were only a tiny minority of people who were like shining candles in the dark.

--------------------
Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/

Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010  |  IP: Logged
Horseman Bree
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# 5290

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Certain acts of violence come from people who have found themselves out of their depth, and who then lash out because they know of no other way of dealing with things.

I'm thinking of a recent school episode where the cameras caught a 13-y.o. boy, large for his age, picking up a rather smaller boy and throwing him against a locker several times. The instigator has very low reading skills and basically does not knowhow to function in group settings.

But, three weeks previously, he had gotten into fisticuffs at the county fair. After he and the victim were separated, his parents and those of the other boy got into fisticuffs over who was "right". Obviously, he had not been shown ways of dealing with things

plus he inherited an attitude to learning (the three "R"s or much else) and not really doing anything with his life.

I doubt he's the only one around.

And the general feeling of being disconnected is increasingly prevalent in our suburban-don't-know-your-neighbour lifestyle. Large schools disconnected from their communities; TV/Internet-based entertainment that doesn't involve input, merely passiveness; a general attitude to denigrate learning or knowing much; all that Pink Floyd "Wall" stuff is and has been far too common

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It's Not That Simple

Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged


 
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