It seems to me that all voilent action, from healthy people, is a fear based reaction? The reason I say healthy is because I’m exluding the mentally challenged, where some people actually kill for pleasure. I’m talkin about the “normal” healthy man or woman in todays world.
I was thinking about it the other night and I couldn't trump the fear card. Every war is fear based, bar fight, even verbal insults. Even in nature, when an animal is hungry it hunts, for fear of starvation, or it kills for fear of being killed. So if every voilent action is fear based, is it sane to fear a future of which we cannot predict? And react based on those fears.
Hm. Not really. Its true violence is always a way of controlling and destroying possible threats or annoyances, so if you regard all such actions as ‘fear-based’ its pretty reasonable, but to say that all people (deranged or not) who commit violent acts are also feeling fear is wrong.
We are all sadistic to some degree or another and thus enjoy violence to a certain degree, and also you could take any competition, especially of course; sport to be violent too.
Its a bit of sweeping statement, but from the examples you gave, yeah, fear is the prime motivator, even if its just fear of losing ‘face’ or a strong economy not just fear of physical attack.
As stated before, violence is often stimulated by fear of some sort, but not allways.
Terrorists are some of the most violent people you’ll find, yet they do not be violent for reasons of fear. They kill and destroy because of “positive” (rather than negative things such as fear, etc.) religious beilfs…or so they claim.
the opposite of being afraid is being ultimately confident in your superiority and confident in the fact that situations will always end up helping you.
would such a person ever find a reason to be violent? i dont.
resorting to violence is giving in the the fear that non-violent means wont work. neccesarily.
terrorists agree with their god in his fear that heathens are corrupting the world and should be destroyed at all costs.
I feel that people do violent things because, to them, doing violence seems to fill some gap of void area of their life. Violence, they believe, seems to filled (even if only temporarily) this gap. It gives the person the “satisfcation” that is found in personal accomplishment of something…be it defending one’s religion, promoting one’s own personal greed, etc…and yes, many of the time (if not most), violence is the result of some sort of fear or feeling of incompetence.
thats a good one. youre right it is something different. but is that different something ever a factor in real violence? the vandalism is childish rebellion against authority. you could hate your regional authority enough to vandalise to piss them off too, but i dont think actually revolting against them would be out of rebellion the same way a kid rebels.
a kid rebels because he just realized that he can and he wants to gain a little power relative to his parents. if he can do the things that the big strong authority doesnt want, then they feel big and strong, and even spitefully happy at the unfairness inflicted upon them being evened out by the new unfairness theyve created for that initial agressor.
i dont think anybody would kill or overthrow the authority for any reason other than specifically being afraid of the bad things that that authority will bring. i dont think anyone would start a bar fight unless they were afraid of looking like a pussy (or maybe they just want to practice ‘arguing’ same as we do…)
Yes, if violence is an act of fear, then it is inevitably love driven (love of pride, control, etc.), but I don’t think it can completely justify it. I could rob a bank and injure, maybe even murder the teller because I love money. I could physically retaliate against someone for hurting or even criticizing someone that I love.
I believe violence is the result of the idea of seperation. That there is an other that is not me. This often leads to the fear that the other will prevail and the me will disapear. But in saying this I also believe that we invent ways of making a more theoretical me. We associate ourselves with symbols, a sport team, the music we listen to, our religion all as a way of having more me. When there is a threat to the me and there is a seperation between me and the other the result is violence.
I agree to the certain extent that the cause of violence is “fear-based.” We can commit violent acts when we are defending ourselves from someone (we fear that certain someone, or can be somethng). It can also be in a community where people are low-income and they do not have the things they have, and so they fear the won’t have anything else in the remainder of their lives, and they commit violent acts against people whom do have things they want. Most people also fear difference. Which is why, in American society, we have many people who believe that homosexuals are a threat to this society and somehow believe they directly affect them. So, what do they do? Some of them commit violent acts against them
It is terribly sad that people often have to resort to violence, in my opinion. The only time violence is necessary in my opinion is when you absolutely HAVE TO! It is when you believe that a certain someone/something is about to inflict deadly harm or serious bodily harm. Other than that, there is no reason to slip into a bestial pre-historic mindset.
Then again, as someone else mentioned, there are people who have a “love” for violence-will find any excuse just to evade other alternatives to a problem/situation. Could it be a chemical imbalance? Environmental roles? etc? Who knows! But they love it!
So what do hunters fear? What do boxers fear? In each case the violence is a sport.
What does the rapist fear? Some may fear rejection, but most simply place no value on the victim, so they abuse them for their own pleasure.
By this logic, everything is fear-based. We love because we are afraid of being alone. We help little old-ladies because we are afraid of losing self-respect.
You are attributing a position to a group just because it applies to one member. Not everyone faces fear in a bar fight. Some feel pleasure when fighting. Others feel hate. The driving forces behind violence are countless.
Jealousy, Greed, Pleasure, Lust, Anger, Hatred, Fear, Pride… the list goes on
Yes, I see what you mean. As humans, we also have sincerity in our minds. We love someone, because we have experienced a moment with them (momentS), find them desirable, or you have the knowledge of that someone/something and you like it. You appeal to it. We help little old ladies, because we think they need help. We are also conscious of how they are feeling when in need of help.
And:
As I said:
There are just some people whom feed on violence! This is the world we live in today.
I still say the result of the idea of seperation leads to hostility and hostility leads to violence. You may play and the play will only be voilent if you percieve seperatness from the other person that you are playing with. You may vandalize property but if you thought of that property as your own you problably won’t vandalize property. You love some one you see them as an extension of you. You have ideas about things and you would see that as an extension of you so you fight for right to ensure survival of those ideas. Voilence is not from fear per say but rather from the idea of seperatness.
What an interesting topic you have brought up: [size=150]Violence and Seperateness[/size]
I have an excellent example. In the United States, we have a problem called (civil rights issue) racial profiling, and the victims of racial profiling are usually minorities such as Hispanics and Blacks. Racial profiling is a social issue that cannot be easily solved. It is a social injustice that many of our policemen have adopted. They have disproportionately targetted many innocent people. These victims of racial profiling feel as if there is a conspiracy that is causing alienation, which is much like a division, or, as you mentioned; seperateness. Of course, this leads to feelings of anger by the minority community, anger then can highly generate/manifest into violence.
Envy and greed. Where I’m from, people really dont give a fuck about life. So if it was something I wanted, it wasnt shit to take it. If violence ensued, then so be it. Also in my society violence is seen as positive. Its sort of a code. We test each other, and if you dont pass the test, then you are open for any and everyone to try and steal or take from you, because you werent agressive enough. I guess it is kind of survivial of the fittest now, but I believe that respect is what intially provoked some of the violence.
“Survival of the Fittest” is implying competition, so I would be inclined to believe that it does accept the argument that violence is necessary always, because it is about a “game” of winning superiority-“superior race”
