One Controversial Word

  Violence, n.

 a. The exercise of physical force so as to inflict injury on, or cause damage to, persons or property; action or conduct characterized by this; treatment or usage tending to cause bodily injury or forcibly interfering with personal freedom.

 

This word, it seems, has been prevalent to humans since the beginning of existence. When I think of violence, I usually think of power and how people have used violence throughout history to get what they want, which is usually power or fame. It is impossible to look at any time period through history and not see some form of violence, and this is an incredibly interesting phenomenon. Why can we, as the general population of the earth, not get to the point where it is unappealing or horrifying to harm another human? Why do some people think it is just part of life and that is how it has to be? Because it does not have to be that way. Violence seems to be in our nature yet against it all at once, which is, I suppose, what has made it such an interesting topic through the years.

When I think of our current cultural period and violence, I think of the concerns that have arisen recently with the fact that children are playing extremely violent video games. Do these video games give these children who play them the inclination to be violent toward other people? Some people might say no, but basic psychology says yes. Of course, it depends on the child but these video games would definitely make the child think that violence is acceptable and maybe even “fun”. Another issue that has come up in our modern society is cyber-bullying and things along those lines. This is obviously not physical force, but in some cases this seems like it could be categorized as violence. It is hurting and damaging someone emotionally as opposed to physically, but I think most people would agree that they are both pretty disturbing. Both types are also detrimental to society, as is violence in general.

The word violence makes me think about the future. Are we, as humans, going to evolve to better deal with violence? Are the numbers of acts of violence in our society and in future societies going to rise or decline? If either scenario, what brought about these changes? Are we ever going to learn from our mistakes of extreme violence in the past?

This word is used in my particular research because the 1960’s in America were a time when violence seemed to be rampant. There was an extremely bloody war going on, forceful protests against that war, and then police using violent force to put down those protests. The chaos seemed to lead to violence, because people did not know what else to do.