What is violence? A global and community perspective Preamble Part 1

BY ERROL A. GIBBS

This article is about “violence” —generically speaking —a global and community perspective. What is violence? Is violence a problem or symptom of a deep and underlying flaw in the human spirit that calls into question, evidence of common causes of violence? Violence is a “symptom” of a deep and underlying problem within a vexed human spirit and mental state of being.

Violence comes from the head (the human compulsion — the “human nature”), but non-violence comes from the heart (the spiritual compulsion —the “spiritual nature”). As a species, human beings are rational, yet irrational; happy, yet unhappy; peaceful, yet violent; calm, yet erupt like volcanoes, sometimes with the least amount of provocation.

Leaders of countries use the pretext of war as they attempt to justify going to war to make peace. If the leaders of countries use war as an instrument of peace, they would have to engage in perpetual wars to maintain peace. More importantly, can nations truly achieve or sustain peace without sustained violence? The glorification of wars by the victors, bolster the vast proliferation of violence at every stratum of society.

“There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit” (Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821, French statesman and military leader).

Human beings seem to accept to some degree, hate, envy, jealousy, bigotry, racism, prejudice, greed, aggression, unfair competition, and violence as natural ways of living. The natural response to these human behaviors is the demand for more human authority. Has human authority managed to curb the base nature in human beings by any historical measure?  Human laws are necessary, but they do not, and cannot cultivate overall goodness in human beings.

Obedience to human laws mainly cultivates compliance, based on fear of censure or punishment by other human beings, rather than fear of a higher “moral authority” (Psalm 111:10). Empirically observe human behavior. Despite positive nurturing, often, there is a tendency to respond with some degree of violence (verbal, mental, or physical) when there is a breakdown in the relationship between people.

The negative impulses that underpin violence —nurtured in the “mental” realm manifests itself in the “physical” realm in many forms —including gun violence. The daily news is a chronicle about violence between individuals in the family, the community, and between street gangs —then there are the titanic wars between nations that draw many other countries into the conflict in a coalition against a perceived common enemy.

Violence threatens the survival of the human species as World War III looms in the panorama of our minds, and the labyrinths of our thoughts and memories of the unmitigated violence of World War I (1914–1918), and World War II (1939 1945). World War I was termed the war to end all wars. World War II was the single deadliest conflict the world has experienced, causing many tens of millions of deaths to both soldiers and civilians alike.

Nevertheless, violence persists at every level of society. Violence is a complex human condition —multilayered, likewise the different expressions of violence. Gun violence is one of the most visible, most reported, and most widespread forms of violence in the world. Can we live without hate, envy, jealousy, bigotry, racism, and prejudice? Can we live without greed, aggression, competition, and violence as the natural way of human existence?

Can human beings mitigate or help to diminish the enormity and proliferation of violence, independent of the imposition of the will of the human heart? Certainly not! The broken trust among human beings underpins the causes of violence. Human existence appears to be a predicate of “Conflict of Differences.” Observe, wherever there are differences, there is a potential for some degree of conflict among human beings.

Differences among human beings are (1) either inherent at birth such as race, color, and culture, (2) institutionalized such as education, religion, and social and economic class, or (3) nurtured within the human mind, fostered by the conditions of human life (wealthy or poor), and their competitive material standing. These three prevailing conditions have a positive or negative influence on the behavior of every human being.

Notwithstanding, the vast majority of people understand these differences —intuitively. People react differently to them, based on their respective nurturing. Moreover, is comparison not the primary cause of the internal conflict that leads to some form of outwardly conflict with others?

Furthermore, any form of injury, inequity, or injustice to the human spirit, real or perceived —definitively violates the rights of human beings to a life of liberty —giving rise to aberrant behavior. With a troubled spirit, people lash out in various forms of violence. Ironically, whenever violence occurs in society, there is an immediate call for more human authority —necessary, but a further aggravation to the human spirit, when justice is unjust.

Now! This writer will briefly examine violence more specifically from two perspectives: Part 2: Global Violence: Causes and Solution Perspectives, and Part 3: Community Violence: Causes and Solution Perspectives.