The Causes of Violence
And other severe human troubles
Dawkins
Humans have overlarge sloppy brains, caused by a high calorie diet and cramming an excess of neurons into our skulls, thus we're prone to aggression and mental illness.
Humans are far more than animals. We can and do control our mammalian urges.
This point isn't widely understood, much less believed, yet it's part of the secular humanist territory. We do indeed have awkward brains, and yet, our entire selves can learn to deal with this reality in the best way, and even work to directly improve those brains.
Darwin
Hominids evolved in African forests, then open savannas. We ran after prey, but ran from lions, but now we're frazzled by car traffic.
Evolutionary psychology can be invoked to "explain" almost anything, but it's controversial, and without the circular reasoning, falls far short of full explanations.
Simply put, we have mammalian bodies and also divine spirits. Also the capacity to choose. Knowing about such an ancient heritage helps enable us to adapt to a hectic modern world.
Dopamine
Our distinctive human nature, and individual characters, can be reduced to the actions of one simple molecule. The neurotransmitter dopamine has overwhelming lifelong effects.
Our human nature is complex, and various people respond differently to dopamine, individually and also at different times.
Our bodies are not mere sock puppets for an invisible soul, yet also, our soul is what makes us fully human, not just clever ambitious animals. Dopamine makes us feel antsy, always seeking more, and it helps a lot to understand what's most worth striving for.
Dewey
Ignorance is tragic. A lack of basic universal education means poverty and hopelessness, also the lack of robust inner world. Such societies will fall behind, see many people turn to criminality, and often end up subservient.
Public education systems are debatably beneficial, and their budgets rather questionable. There are facts and then there's indoctrination. Foolish bad people can wreck a family or neighborhood, while highly educated bad people can ruin entire nations.
Knowledge is vastly preferable to ignorance, and useful skills greatly outstrip helplessness. Medieval Christians formalized and taught critical thinking, and that's been useful ever since. Basic facts, the "Three Rs," social capacity, and engaged curiosity, are all wonderful. More so when there's less focus on popular ideological trends, instead on actual tolerance and full intellectual diversity.
Freud
Pretty much every child gets raised wrong. Full of inner conflict and suppressed emotions, in uneasy tension, which emerge when least expected.
Freud meant well, but got a lot of things wrong. Alfred Adler, Viktor Frankl, and others understood humans better.
Most people understand that a loving family and good neighborhoods help children flourish. There are now many excellent, compassionate, scientifically valid, guides for child raising.
Violence
Abuse, crime, and warfare are endemic to human households and societies and international relations. This ends the lives of many, and will severely traumatize survivors. Even the possibility of these will stunt the character of a person.
People are generally peaceful, and resilient in times of conflict. Violent aggression, bullying, and abuse are never good; even though warfare often prompts technological development and diplomatic harmony.
This world and its people suffer far more than they should. Many great counselors work to break the generational cycles of violence, while saints and sages work to bring about world peace. Many tragic practices have been steadily declining for millennia.
Meat
Exploiting animals, hunting to kill, supporting gigantic feed lots and slaughterhouses, consuming fatty hormone-laden meats, and robbing resources from animals and the Earth, are harmful and evil. Nature and humans are both ruined.
Humans have always been omnivorous, while animals continue to suffer and die in the wild. Pollution can and should be dealt with, while civilized technology vastly increases available resources. Vegetarian and Vegan diets are not always healthier or more affordable.
Concern for the Earth is good, and love for animals commendable. Quasi-religions such as Veganism claim a scientific basis, while their main impetus is emotional, a perceived moral superiority. Unfortunately, changing the menu just partially affects our basic human character, for good bad and otherwise.
Baby Formula
Feeding babies synthetic formula, instead of mother's breast milk, is unnatural. The entire baby care industry is unhealthy, impersonal, and alienating. Those babies grow up internally, and perhaps biologically, stunted.
Modern formulas are getting better all the time. Some mothers really cannot breast feed; while a few VIPs have crucial responsibilities, including for millions of other babies.
Breast milk, and the act of motherly sustenance, are truly wondrous, a clear preference. Still, a mature stable healthy mother (and father) are most important. Formula, when used merely for convenience, may indicate a lack thereof. A close personal focus is always best for children.
Big Pharma
Between illegal, legalized, and most of all, prescription psychoactive drugs, many young minds have been scrambled.
Some drugs are helpful, in desperate situations. Certain others just dull a person into overall inaction.
Many people thank corporations for widespread prosperity, while others demonize them as embodiments of greed, while it's the actual medications that need improving. As in, more helpful, with fewer side effects, and with dosages needed far less often.
Substances
Vast numbers of people abuse alcohol and drugs. Lives are ruined, families broken, and there's carnage on the highways. Prohibit those, and society will benefit tremendously.
People have been altering their minds throughout all known history, in many ways. Back in the 1930s, Prohibition was a dramatic failure, and now, potent drugs get cooked up in discreet home laboratories.
The partial effectiveness of alcohol and drug laws, does not mean there should be no such laws. Some drugs are horrifically dangerous. Ordinary people, with disunited minds and bodies, and broken relationships, always seek to relieve their suffering. One way or another. Yet we humans really can find contentment, and bliss, and mastery -- without chemical additives.
The NRA
Too many big guns around, not even the police ought to have such things. Their total confiscation has been prevented for too long, and now come the consequences.
The NRA teaches gun safety and responsible use, to youth and police and others. It urges the actual enforcement of existing laws, not only passing even harsher (yet still ineffective) new ones.
Handy villains are part-and-parcel of political tribalism. It's easier that way, yet criminals are still out there.
Conservatives
Seething racists in high office, who cleverly signal their supporters to maintain old traditions. Meaning, to help cleanse the nation of ambitious BIPOC people. Glorifying selfishness and exploitation.
Many pundits and populists are crude, and grasping, though not particularly evil. Many of them actually enjoy multiracial support. Exploitation and poverty are found in every society and under each system, but some people are more realistic.
Prejudice and violence long predate any known politician, and are likely to outlive them all. Politicians are not devils or saviors, though many voters regard them as such. Better to strive forward in our own immediate spheres, then reach out to larger ones.
Liberals
Family breakup, identity politics, dependency, few consequences for youthful transgressions, a sense of entitlement that is often thwarted. Things which result in immaturity and increased criminal behavior.
Liberals mean well, and wish all people could have support, justice and equity, and most of all happiness.
These terms aren't defined very well, and too broad a brush obscures things. Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned of liberal policy failure decades ago.
Revolutionaries
Black, White, Hispanic, doing anything to divide society. Launch a race war and wreck the USA. Burn it all down, man.
Revolutionaries tend to destroy themselves. Most people know that a wicked means cannot bring about a good end.
Not many people grasp the seriousness of, or even fully realize the existence of, such dedicated revolutionaries. The Cloward-Piven Method and similar, actually seek to wreck society from within. Some people admire them as confident allies -- but actually, they're not! Those extremists really must be marginalized, and if acting illegally, then busted.
Authority
Humans were once free, and the few remaining hunter-gatherer tribes are harmoniously peaceful. Land and wealth quickly elicited authority figures, and people have been oppressed ever since. Truly liberate everyone, and our full potential will shine.
Only some primitive tribes are harmonious, while others are terribly violent. There are zero examples of a larger or lasting anarchic society, in all history across the globe.
People usually behave quite differently depending upon their circumstances, however their basic character remains unchanged, and often reverts at the first opportunity. Power almost always corrupts, no matter the form or title. A few societies have mitigated this, while legitimate principled authority is vested in parents, also community leaders. Humans must change enough to love not oppress.
Popular Culture
Even in the quietest areas, kids are growing up with rampant rape, pillage, and slaughter always on screen, so of course they'll start doing the same in real life.
That seems obvious, yet nations which play the most video games, or devour Hollywood movies, don't match up with the most violent places. There's no overall correlation, much less causation.
Vicarious violence can hardly be beneficial; and as with this list, other causes can also be sought. The Internet
Every loner can stay alone, but gets inflamed by others anyway. Insane notions flourish unchecked, until they boil over. Rare nutcases find then encourage each other, and weak people find a handy way to lash out.
The Internet is a tool, and like all others, can be used well or misused terribly. By each person, according to their own character.
Freedom and rules, abundance and restrictions, are continually at odds. While the troubled loners seldom get real help.
Patriarchy
Men are nasty, brutish, and domineering. They comprise most of the soldiers and all of the dictators. They've been in charge of virtually every bad thing that's ever happened.
Those men were usually raised by a woman, while the older macho males were out gallivanting around. The troubles of humanity imbue people of every role, sex, and gender.
Few experts agree with Gimbutas, or Gilman, that long ago women presided over an earthly paradise. However, men have much to atone for, and in ways that don't entail ruining their many positive (and often, quite attractive) aspects. Also, the western world needs to admit that a few societies are severely misogynistic, and no matter their other lousy circumstances, hold them to account for this.
Capitalism
Some economic systems are synonymous with greed, exploitation, and environmental plunder, and this one leads the pack. Smash it, and the USA which personifies it, then a lovely unselfish workers paradise will automatically emerge.
People have messed up every known political and economic system. From big men to aristocrats to oligarchs to the nomenklatura, an elite always emerges.
To establish then maintain a fair and equitable, free and prosperous, system; better quality humans need to inhabit and operate that future system. Mandates, and fancy top-down plans, won't ever be enough. The modern, regulated, economic free market works with best with actual self-centered humans.
Socialism
Some economic systems are highly touted, yet have a lousy track record. Disappointed zealots are the worst of all.
Idealists and ideologues are often trying to set up better communities, and improved new systems. Sweet promises abound, and most fail, while sometimes one really takes hold.
It's a broadly-defined term, popularly mis-applied to countries such as Sweden. Whether an idealistic commune or a state-run economy, socialism is still run by human beings; and it does no better, usually much worse.
Malthus
Humans remain mired in medieval habits, in numbers far too large to live companionably, much less, to have sufficient food and resources. Major industry and agriculture make this worse. Only a severe diminution, if not extinction, of humanity will save the Earth and its biosphere.
Malthus was wrong at the time, and in all the centuries since. Technology and creativity and increasing harmony have allowed humans to prosper, and the biosphere to continue, if under great pressure.
Doctrines of antihumanism are defeatist if not dangerous, while technological prosperity and sweeping transhumanist visions are incomplete. Familiar human character flaws, which have brought about severe problems, if unaddressed yet with greater abilities in hand, could bring about much worse calamities.
Demons
Subtle demonic voices of evil can find a willing ally, and horrific violence often follows.
If one believes in God (or, more generally, in a spiritual realm), then demonic influence is real and ominous. Still, few people are susceptible to this, and if they are, some personal choice was needed to make them that way.
The line between criminal insanity, violent tendencies, and demonic evil is, almost by definition, invisible. Except in rare dramatic cases, it's usually fingered after the fact. Secular experts will sometimes (privately) admit to encountering cases of obvious possession.
Jesus
At this providential End Times stage, evil is rampant, in order to strike the world with righteous anger. It's a necessary step, to increase conversions while separating the sheep from the goats, right before Jesus returns with trumpets on the clouds.
Actually, God wants peace and joy and unity. While evil lashes out, time and time again, then eventually loses ground.
Few Christians are really that harsh, or, haven't thought through the implications of such apocalyptic doctrines. Jesus has always yearned to save us all, and as soon as possible.
The Love of Money
Greed is awful, Mammon is poisonous, Property incites conflict. Marx and the Bible agree, money is nasty stuff. Create a moneyless society and all will be well.
The Bible says, in 1 Timothy 6:10, the love of money, not the thing itself, is the source of evil. In reality, beyond the simplest hunter-gatherer lifestyle, there must be, and certainly will be, an agreed-upon medium of exchange. It's a tool, and like all others, can be misused.
The Bible (in Proverbs 31: 10-31) praises the Good Woman, who succeeds in business along with much else. The passage in Timothy continues, "Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." That needs to be considered, because selfish people would still grab all they could, even in a moneyless society. Deeper troubles need handling, and a stronger faith helps.
Self
The person at fault for a terrible crime is the person who commits that crime. Never mind the past, or external factors, just get tough on crime.
The self is not an island. We are ultimately responsible for all we do, and also, it helps to know what influences usher people toward selfish or harmful, illegal or evil, actions.
Each person, and those who raised and influenced that person, will or won't do a good job, will or won't find effective help if needed, will or won't assume mature responsibility for each day's actions. Improvement at many levels, and scales, and in many circles of life, are all much needed. Meanwhile, every convicted criminal should face some real consequences.
Nothing
All the world is evanescent, all we deem important is fleeting, while sorrow and evil are mere illusions.
Some philosophies and religions, including basic Hinduism and Buddhism, also (more or less) Christian Science, assert that the whole of mortal existence is an illusion. Hence, suffering and sin, even death itself, are ultimately unreal. It's all just a bad dream, a deep-seated misunderstanding.
If only!
Hypocrisy
Few if any people live up to what they're claiming. Clergymen sin, activists indulge, VIPs engage in scandals. Disappointment is universal. Disillusionment, in an all too literal sense, reigns. No wonder people decide to lie and cheat.
People have ideals, looking for true love and maturity, even if seldom finding those. Care and honesty are preferred, at a minimum, for oneself.
Conceptualizing, and upholding, great ideals is a quintessentially human thing. Set the bar really high, and maybe not reach it, however those luminous ideals remain a goal for all humanity. We're getting there!
Pandora
Someone was tempted, a long time ago, and opened the forbidden box. Released a world of horrors upon an unsuspecting humanity, and it's been downhill ever since.
That's a quaint old myth, while modern people can handle such things much better. Besides, taken on its own terms, Hope also emerged from the box.
Ancient myths are remembered for a reason, as many have keenly relevant insights into human nature and relationships. Meanwhile, scholarly advocates of various 'causes of trouble' theories hope that rival ideas will be relegated to 'quaint myth' status, if not utter obscurity. It's more like, Pandora's fateful Box is symbolic of something far more alluring, which often wrecks lives in our modern day.
Eve & Cain
Eve ate the apple, then Cain slew his brother, and out from Eden we went. Pride ruined humans. We've all been in big trouble ever since, catching only the faintest despairing glimpses of that long-ago paradise.
This story is taken in countless ways, from ultra-literal to poetic allegory. It was a very long time ago, reportedly it was just some fruit, and how could that really affect modern-day humanity?
Biological science has discovered the reality of a Mitochondrial Eve, so we humans really do descend from a handful of specific ancestors. However interpreted, from dreamy temptations to bold defiance; from impulsive cuisine to clever seduction, this Fall of Man rings down through the ages. Humans still resist the admission, but down deep we all have very much (both nasty and nice) in common.
Brain Damage
All too often, a healthy brain is damaged by skull fractures, the rabies virus, explosive shock waves, lightning strikes, extreme PTSD, and other unintended causes both ancient and modern. Personalities are shattered, and the familiar individual subsumed. Depression, callousness, reckless behavior, and sometimes aggressive violence result.
Both law and tradition hold individuals responsible, and might lessen a punishment when mitigating factors can be shown. Hopefully, an external cause can be repaired by a medical or similar procedure.
Human brains are fragile in one sense, robust in another. If humans are only material, then a changed brain might be said to be different, effectively a whole new person. If we have souls, and a connection to the divine, then stable enduring sources can be drawn upon. A television set can be broken, however metaphorically, the TV signal continues, and the station itself is eternal. We have an ideal, for each individual and for all humankind, and know when it's been terribly deviated from. The brain can often heal, with methods of help improving continually, and our soul will eventually move beyond its vulnerable container.
Being Judgmental
Educated people imagine they know the objective truth, whatever that's supposed to be. Privileged people and classes think they're somehow better, when any advantage is based upon constant discrimination and systemic oppression. Millions of people believe that God spoke especially to them, while other people are just damned. Holding, much less advocating, any belief system inplies that other beliefs are inferior. Some elites grab more, hoard a lot, then claim to be above others. Eliminate all that, in both thought and practice, and humans won't have to fight over anything. Smash every '-ism' now!
Are scientific findings real? Is civilized tradition generally valuable? Do humans have varying abilities and character? Can respected engineers and technicians be relied upon, to keep things functional? Will a coherent personal understanding of reality allow navigating life more smoothly? Does a compassionate God speak to we mortals? Yes to all of that.
Common life, and regular society, have a lot of problems. A lot of people act terrible, and if powerful that's even worse. Criticisms are justified! Also, those problems can be mitigated, then fully repaired. Drifting unmoored through life, or pursuing only external successes, brings little satisfaction. Throwing out both Science and Scripture might be a prideful thrill, however, instead of 'reinventing the wheel' (much less, actually creating a 'fantastic new wheel'), this is more like surrounding one's self with broken wheels, then breaking any others which come within reach. Modern civilization can sustain a whole lot of alienated people, in great comfort, however that 'no judgment, no nothing' attitude and practice are not actually helpful. For anyone.
Lack of Love
We are physical and spiritual beings, who (devout people say) bear original sin, and thus are incorrigible. Further (humanist skeptics say), religious concepts are personally repressive and its organizations socially controlling. Either way, things will only get worse.
We are individually unique, maximally valuable, literally eternal, and much beloved, children of God. We also messed up, fell away, became tainted by sinful choices, and have yet to fulfill the ideal divine pattern. Our minds and bodies are not united, thus we are ever unsatisfied and often unreliable; suffering mentally, medically, and socially. Unfortunately, in seeking to gain authority, bad people sometimes cloak themselves in religion.
Humanity as a whole, and most individuals (overall and in general) are steadily improving, by numerous objective standards. Tinkering with economic systems, and enforcing centralized mandates, can punish crime and have some helpful effects. However, the most radical solution imaginable is to willingly become ideal people and families. Folks burgeoning with pure and true love.
Summary
Finding the very deepest root of our problems is essential. We can work toward a time when sin (defined in practice as immature, inconsistent, selfish, at worst cruel even violent behavior) is largely overcome, generous trustworthy behavior is the reliable norm, and God's wise plan is overwhelmingly fulfilled on Earth. That means for each and every person, regardless of background, appearance, circumstances, bank account, or any other variable. It's actually liberating, and the one thing which truly unites us all.
This may seem very distant, if not impossible. Yet we are doing better! Animal cruelty, familial abuse, public anger, hunger and exploitation, racial and other discrimination, aggressive wars, and more; are increasingly unacceptable, and less common. Laws and concepts are changing, not without legitimate controversy, to fit these new social norms. (Issues such as: is there an active Creator? Does "born or feel that way" legitimize any personal behavior? And so forth.)
The grandest Marxist or fundamentalist or utopian or transhumanist visions, if blind to the actual causes of human trouble, may fail to address (much less, to solve) our deepest problems. We do not want those familiar problems to plague individuals and families and societies forever! Yet they can be, in fact in some circles, already are being, directly addressed. Not easy, however, a journey that's well underway.
Could it possibly be that simple? An actual clear blueprint, a dynamic harmonious network, the optimal rational and revealed pattern for joy and success. In practice: really care about others, and they're not going to be discriminated against, much less, become criminal victims. Know that everyone's equal before God, then they're not to be exploited or invaded or worse. Appreciate the wonderful creation God and Nature provided for us all, then it's not to be polluted or pillaged. The concept of 'intersectionalty' is currently popular; and by theological, philosophical, and other grounds including plain common sense: the ultimate point of intersection is none other than God.
There are many helpful, informative, books and web sites; both religious and scientific, from diverse viewpoints. If only they were more widely read, and taken seriously.
Links
Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Reading List
The Bible
The Divine Principle
by SM Moon
7 Gifts to Give Your Child: Parenting That Will Touch Their Future
by Myrna Lapres
Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Joy DeGruy
Why They Kill by Richard Rhodes
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
Common Ground by Donald V. Gaffney
The Molecule of More by Lieberman & Long
Political Tribes by Amy Chua
The Righteous Mind Jonathan Haidt
Abundance by Diamandis & Kotler
The Mainspring of Human Progress by HG Weaver
The Five Thousand Year Leap by W Cleon Skousen
Kindergarden Of Eden by Evan Sayet
Understanding Human Nature by Alfred Adler
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton
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