The real problem facing the world, is the acceptance of violence.

[paramecium]

Violent behaviour has become accepted and normalized and thugs are venerated. Murder has become a form of self-expression. All forms of violence should be verboten, including simulated violence which precipitates actual violence. Humanity cannot progress as a species until violence is completely abandoned.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Violent behaviour has become accepted and normalized and thugs are venerated. Murder has become a form of self-expression.

Where?

All forms of violence should be verboten, including simulated violence which precipitates actual violence.

Newer studies are showing we can ellicit the same aggressive responses in a lab by frustrating a video game player with a diffucult and non violent game (it was noticed the violent games that get aggressive in a lab are themselves difficult games). And, of course, these lab studies have not translated to the real world where cou tries like Japan and Sweden consume large amounts of violent media but are are very peaceful and safe nations with very low crime rates.

 

[Nakosis]

Violent behaviour has become accepted and normalized and thugs are venerated. Murder has become a form of self-expression. All forms of violence should be verboten, including simulated violence which precipitates actual violence. Humanity cannot progress as a species until violence is completely abandoned.

I think a bigger problem is defining violence. Everyone seems to have their own idea of what violence is.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Violent behaviour has become accepted and normalized and thugs are venerated. Murder has become a form of self-expression. All forms of violence should be verboten, including simulated violence which precipitates actual violence. Humanity cannot progress as a species until violence is completely abandoned.

True. The only thing that caught my eye was the word thug. What's a thug in relation to violence?

 

[paramecium]

I think a bigger problem is defining violence. Everyone seems to have their own idea of what violence is.

Violence is injuring sentient beings and everything which lives is sentient even if humans do not recognise it as such. For example, Jains have been acutely aware plants can experience a quality of pain for over millennia.

Every life-form contains a vital principle and this elan vital is an intrinsic property of the universe and has always existed in some form. It is the substrate of consciousness and by no means the exclusive preserve of human beings who are the most aggressive species on the planet.

There is only one natural moral law, do not take a life no matter how insignifcant it is deemed to be by arbitrary laws and conventions. You cannot take something which was not yours to take and eventually it will have to be returned.

 

[Daemon Sophic]

Violent behaviour has become accepted and normalized and thugs are venerated. Murder has become a form of self-expression. All forms of violence should be verboten, including simulated violence which precipitates actual violence. Humanity cannot progress as a species until violence is completely abandoned.

I’ve never heard of murder as “a form of self-expression” other than from the Joker in the 1989 Batman movie.
Multiple studies refute the idea that simulated violence leads to actual violence.
I agree that humanity needs to be less violent; but ..... How? other than improved general education and erasure of poverty/need/desperation? Mind you, a significantly decreased global human population could go a long way toward that end as well (say 1-3 billion max).

 

[shunyadragon]

Violent behaviour has become accepted and normalized and thugs are venerated. Murder has become a form of self-expression. All forms of violence should be verboten, including simulated violence which precipitates actual violence. Humanity cannot progress as a species until violence is completely abandoned.

The belief that the violence we see now is so to speak normalized or venerated is a very naive conclusion. The violence we see now is clearly present throughout history. An intersting series of very extreme violence is the race riots of the late 19th and into the 20th century. In the process many Middle Class black neighborhoods and businesses were completely destroyed and burned and many blacks were killed. For example the Wilmington 1898 race war against blacks, and also the Chicago Riots of 1919. The whites justified and venerated these acts.

 

[Daemon Sophic]

Violence is injuring sentient beings and everything which lives is sentient even if humans do not recognise it as such. For example, Jains have been acutely aware plants can experience a quality of pain for over millennia.

Every life-form contains a vital principle and this elan vital is an intrinsic property of the universe and has always existed in some form. It is the substrate of consciousness and by no means the exclusive preserve of human beings who are the most aggressive species on the planet.

There is only one natural moral law, do not take a life no matter how insignifcant it is deemed to be by arbitrary laws. You cannot take something which was not yours to take and eventually it will have to be returned.

I am a vegan (or at least try to be), but if you propose that even plants must be spared, then aren’t you being disingenuous, and even downright silly?
Peace through self-extinction? No thanks.

 

[Nakosis]

Violence is injuring sentient beings and everything which lives is sentient even if humans do not recognise it as such. For example, Jains have been acutely aware plants can experience a quality of pain for over millennia.

Every life-form contains a vital principle and this elan vital is an intrinsic property of the universe and has always existed in some form. It is the substrate of consciousness and by no means the exclusive preserve of human beings who are the most aggressive species on the planet.

There is only one natural moral law, do not take a life no matter how insignifcant it is deemed to be by arbitrary laws. You cannot take something which was not yours to take and eventually it will have to be returned.

Would you include mental injury as violence? For example, if I said something to hurt your feelings, would you consider that violence?

 

[danieldemol]

There is only one natural moral law, do not take a life no matter how insignifcant it is deemed to be by arbitrary laws.

It is necessary to take at least plant life to survive, and quite often necessary to take the life of various parasites and other hostile creatures where there are no more humane methods of dealing with them.

Not sure what you mean by everything will have to be returned.

 

[shunyadragon]

I am a vegan (or at least try to be), but if you propose that even plants must be spared, then aren’t you being disingenuous, and even downright silly?
Peace through self-extinction? No thanks.

I vote for down right silly.

 

[Daemon Sophic]

Before panicking please take a listen...
War And Violence On The Decline In Modern Times

 

[paramecium]

The belief that the violence we see now is so to speak normalized or venerated is a very naive conclusion. The violence we see now is clearly present throughout history. An intersting series of very extreme violence is the race riots of the late 19th and into the 20th century. In the process many Middle Class black neighborhoods and businesses were completely destroyed and burned and many blacks were killed. For example the Wilmington 1898 race war against blacks, and also the Chicago Riots of 1919. The whites justified and venerated these acts.

Humans may always have been violent to a degree but now we live in a society saturated with violent imagery both real and simulated. Violence is expected and its absence is considered a deprivation for most.

It's possible there have been nonviolent societies in the distant past, for example the Harapa civilisation which flourished in the Indus valley some two thousand years ago. This culture may have bequeathed proto Jain and Vedic philosophy to recorded history.

 

[paramecium]

It is necessary to take at least plant life to survive,

I don't know why you're making wild assumptions.

I didn't say fruiting bodies of plants can't be eaten, all I said is plants can feel pain.

 

[Tambourine]

How can imagery be violent in itself? It cannot hurt anybody in the physical sense.

 

[Quintessence]

Wait, what? Do we live on the same planet? Sorry, that was uncouth - do you live in an active warzone? A place with routine gang violence or something? Legitimately asking, because human-human violence is such a rarity, I'm not sure how on earth you came up with such a perception of the world. I don't know of anywhere that violence is "accepted and normalized," much less where murder a form of "self-expression." I know of nowhere that you wouldn't land in jail for such nonsense.

 

[paramecium]

How can imagery be violent in itself? It cannot hurt anybody in the physical sense.

It desensitizes people to violence.

 

[Tambourine]

It desensitizes people to violence.

Even if it did, that still wouldn't be a form of violence.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Violence is expected and its absence is considered a deprivation for most.

I dont think I've met anyome who considers a life free of violence as a deprived life. Really, the concern is people--especially childred--being exposee to real violence and the detrimental effects it has on us.

Humans may always been violent to a degree but now we live in a society saturated with violent imagery both real and simulated.

Not really. For most.of us, we are living in times that are far more peaceful than our ancestors knew, and our chance of being killed by an act of violence has never been lower.
As for violent media, we've always had it (Shakespeare and ancient Greek plays did have it, because the crowd loved it). It doesn't actually lead to violent behavior.

 

[paramecium]

Wait, what? Do we live on the same planet? Sorry, that was uncouth - do you live in an active warzone? A place with routine gang violence or something? Legitimately asking, because human-human violence is such a rarity, I'm not sure how on earth you came up with such a perception of the world. I don't know of anywhere that violence is "accepted and normalized," much less where murder a form of "self-expression." I know of nowhere that you wouldn't land in jail for such nonsense.

No one so much as bats an eyelid at violence anymore and aggression and barely-constrained violence are commonplace. As I said before, humans are the most violent species on the planet and nonviolence appears to be very much an aberration of human behaviour.