An eye for an eye only ends up with all of us blind......

Unrelenting rain, unendurable pain.

Two small boys trudging through hazardous terrain.

Snatched in the middle of the night,

life as they knew it destroyed before the first morning light. 

Sister and brother, father and mother,

 gunned down in a hail of fire; crack! crack! crack!

now all they have is each other.

Bare feet, nothing to eat,

just mile after mile, walking.... in blistering heat.

 

With each step taken;

fun and games, their childhood and innocence forsaken.

With innocence gone, a new resolve;

survival at any cost so lets bide our time,

one day we will hold the guns, and to the very top we will climb.

We will revenge our sisters our brothers, our fathers and our mothers

What was taken from us, we will one day take from others.

 

Violence begets more violence.

The abused often becomes the abuser.

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." (Isaac Asimov)

 

Violence: "The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation." (WHO=The World Health Organisation)

Violence is believed to be directed to and by: the self, from individual to individual, to and or by groups/organisations. In most cases, violent behaviour is learned through experiencing it and or witnessing it. Is being violent the same as being aggressive? Aggression perhaps can be defined as a behaviour with intent to injure or hurt another(or property, or group) in one way or another, violence perhaps can be defined as aggression in action; the physical manifestation of aggression.

Much has and is being published on how violent behaviours are on the increase and mass media is often suggested to be one of the major factors. Some research suggests that whether we like it or not, mass media greatly influences our values, beliefs and behaviours.

Experiments done with children before and after viewing violence on TV, Movies or violent Video games, indicate a likelihood of those children to behave in an aggressive manner immediately after the viewing. Similar experiments have been done with young adults and older adolescents which show the same result. There is strong empirical data that indicates that exposure to media violence increase a risk of aggressive and violent behaviour in the observer.

Whether through a screen or in actual life, constant exposure to violence and aggression, research suggest promote desensitisation yet also an increase in aggressive and violent responses. If violence is portrayed as justified behaviour the more likely it is to be perceived as an "appropriate" behavioural response.

Although pathology may play a role in some instances, violence can be viewed as a result of a number of factors such as social, psychological, financial (poverty) in nature. Other factors that may play a role is a sense of  helplessness, powerlessness, insecurity, vulnerability and shame. (Not to mention exposure to continuous armed conflicts, wars of any kind, terror attacks, and so on)

If violence begets violence, then perhaps compassion begets compassion? Monkey see monkey do?

If  research shows us that exposing ourselves to violence through video games, violent movies, etc. increases the likelihood of us becoming more aggressive and violent ourselves, perhaps it may be worthwhile to watch less violent movies, play less violent video games, in short, minimise the amount of violence(over which we have a choice) we subject ourselves to?  And if we are faced with aggressive behaviour in our day-to-day lives, perhaps learning how to diffuse aggressive situations may be helpful?

Some suggestions: Assess the behaviour of the aggressor....is calmly leaving the best option or is verbal communication possible?

Is there a trigger.....what sparked the aggression? Ask, using non-judgemental words: what are you feeling right now? what is happening in you right now? in a calm voice.

Questions we can perhaps ask ourselves if we are the "angry" ones....

Why am I angry? How do I deal with it? Is it working or do I release my anger on others and in doing so, causing them pain?

"An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind." (M. Gandhi)

 

"The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles." (M. Gandhi)

"If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos." (Martin Luther King Jr.)

"Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared."

(Henri Nowen)

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral; returning violence with violence only multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already void of stars."

(Martin Luther King Jr.)