Considering Violence

Violence, often dismissed as puerile, is a fundamental aspect of human nature.

The urge to violence plays out as high-risk competitive learning, both social and physical, as a means of domination or a swift corrective for injustice. Beyond establishing pecking order or encouraging cleverness-over-might, humans also have a horror fascination for destruction. When this grizzly aspect is folded back into the culture we establish voyeurism, acclaim, and romance centered around risk; a strategy providing the dare-devil access to both manly comradeship and sexual partners.

The attempt to shame or train violent impulses out of humanity has a complex risk/reward problem: we can (and do) set up regulated channels (violence outlets) and we can sublate (transference) violence into economic and academic ambition. But to mediate or pathologize can lead to repression, and to invoke authoritarian intervention as the only corrective is to rely excessively on de-humanizing bureacracy.