Why is it that we see violence everywhere? In the news, you hear stories of deaths resulting from domestic violence. From school bullies to global wars, hatred seems to dominate the modern world. So why is there so much violence?
First of all, I want to dispel all the popular causes of hate. One of the more popular explanations of violence is environmental influences. Culturally violence is tolerated, if not praised in modern society. Television is considered a big culprit in promoting brutality. There are lots of violent scenes in TV shows that involve fights and guns. Same reasons for movies and videogames.
My first thought was that this theory is a load of bullshit. There is no hard evidence stating that media violence is related to violent crimes. In fact, crime rates are lower in the past few years while videogames are becoming more violent.
A lot of experts also say people who have been spanked or beaten as kids usually turn out violent. These kids, who have been exposed to violent behavior, don't know how to release their emotions so they do it by what they know most: assaulting.
I first believed this theory was correct when I heard this, but then I started thinking about how dumb this is. A lot of kids who were beaten grow up to be successful adults. They have great careers and don't show signs of violent behavior. Also people don’t always express emotions through brutality. They find other outputs to these emotions in life, like painting or exercising.
After some thought, I realized that these explanations aren't wrong. They only say that kids have a tendency to become violent, therefore meaning it's not the root of the problem.
If you dig deeper, you'll see that all violent behavior results from one thing: insecurity. We can go as far to say that insecurity comes from fear.
Let's say that you're like most people and you fear spiders. If a tarantula crawls next to you, your first thought would probably be to eliminate that feeling of fear. Killing the spider would be one of the methods. Therefore you attack because you fear. You're scared, and you don’t like that feeling. Once you kill the spider, everything will be safe again.
The reason people act violently is to assert control. Without insecurity or fear, there would be no reason to act with violence. Violence seems correct when there’s fear but if you feel relatively safe, attacking would be pointless.
This is why nations wage war against each other. They're scared that they don't have control over their country. If you were a president of a country and another country developed this new technological device that could wipe out your nation, would you be scared? Hell yes. Your country and your people are at stake here..
Even if the other country doesn't wish to attack you, you react violently towards them. You might order your troops to scout the area and secure the threat. Nothing hostile, just some searching. However the other country might feel offended and retaliate by eliminating your troops. Both countries will then respond with more violent acts and pretty soon you got yourself a war.
I’ve seen fights similar to this. A friend of mine feels insecure when he sees another guy with his girlfriend. He doesn't feel that his girlfriend is in his control. He verbally attacks the other dude. The dude resists and says nothing is going on between him and the girl. My friend doesn't believe him and verbally attacks him again. The dude responds with insults. My friend then delivers a punch to the dude's face and a fight breaks out.
Responding with resistance and violent acts will never solve the issue. Fighting back in situations like these will only escalate the violence. The only way to end fights is to forget them. Learn the classic phrase, "Forgive and Forget". So what if that guy insulted you or your nation gets bombed into dust? Just forget about it and move on. Sure it may seem bad right now but in the future your enemies will see how wrong they were and will ask you to forgive them. In the long term, forgiving will solve any outbreak between different parties.
Being more aware of the situation and eliminating fear is key to stopping the violence. The next time you get punched in the face (hopefully never), stop and think about what you're going to do. If you are more conscious than your opponent, you would not retaliate but instead you would examine your choices. Then you will realize that fighting is pointless because you don’t fear anything and you'll just walk away.
If everyone in the world were more aware of their actions, violence wouldn't have any place in society.
A world without violence is possible if everyone started paying attention to their choices.
