The Heart of Violence

What news gets good ratings? War and disasters.

What movies are popular? Action and horror.

What type of fiction sells best? Thrillers, horror, action.

What is the common thread in all of these? Violence.

As a word, violence has many meanings. When applied to the human world, the common thread running
through these meanings is the concept of the expression of passion and the exercise of control. In this general sense, any act of creation is a violent act. Any act to maintain social norms is an act of violence.

The important point here is that the expression of violence is the desire for control. It is an act of coercion. Violence can be verbal, emotional, economic, or physical. Someone isn’t doing what we think they should. We cannot get them to stop through persuasive means. We eventually reach the point of trying to force them to act in the way we think they should. If we are strong, we use the legal system and war to try impose our will. This is violence sanctioned by society. If we are weak, we use criminal activity and terrorism to do so. This is violence that isn’t sanctioned by society.

Though we may not physically participate in it, violence, both sanctioned and unsanctioned, are endemic in the world. There are wars. There is terrorism. There is ordinary street crime. All are expressions of the will to control. “I cannot get you to do what I wish by talking to you. I will make you do what I want!”

Whether they are more common than was the case in earlier times, I don’t know. In earlier times news took days, weeks, and month to travel. Everyday occurrences were not worth the retelling, so if war and murder were common, the news wouldn’t spread.

As long as one person feels violence in their heart, as long as one person is willing to use coercion when persuasion doesn’t work, violence will continue to be a fact of life on this planet.

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