Violence

I am writing this post in a warm sunlit room, on a coolish autumn morning (14 C, or so), drinking my morning cup of coffee and listening to a radio broadcast of a Mozart violin concerto. I am doing what I enjoy doing and am at peace, both with myself and with the world - my world. Now my world consists of me and my wife of thirty years, our two children and our four grand children. As far as I know there is nothing untoward going on, each of them is getting on with their lives, husbands working, wives either at (paid) work or at home (working) looking after young children, and children, doing what children do best – growing, learning and playing.

In complete contrast to this I recognise that there is an amazing amount of violence everywhere, in every town, city and country, as is reported in the media on a daily basis. I am sure that it has been going on all the time, it is just that the violence seems to be getting, well, more violent. And I wonder why?

There is certainly less self-discipline evident, there certainly seems to be less empathy with our fellow beings, there seems to be more selfishness, more greed and less patience in every day affairs. There is certainly less willingness to accept responsibility for ones actions – particularly when the results are injurious to others; the obvious corollary is that whatever happens is always someone else’s fault and responsibility.

Now the flow on from this blaming someone else is that ‘they’, (the others), are considered ‘different’ from me, because ‘they’ have made the mistakes which result in the injuries, of whatever sort. They are therefore lesser beings – they make mistakes and I don’t, I am therefore better than they are.

Because I am better than they are (and they are obviously lesser beings than I am) they don’t matter. I therefore have a licence to do whatever I like to them – because they are lesser human beings they deserve what they get – it is their fault – they should not have be there, doing what they were doing, at that time.

This is a very dangerous thought process. This is a ‘gang’ mentality (you are not part of the gang – you are ‘outside – you are different); this is ‘class’ mentality (you are not of my class – by birth, by social standing, by value of possessions etc); this is racism (you are not of my skin colour, you don’t speak my language, you don’t eat my kind of food, you don’t dress the way I do and you, most probably, worship a lesser God than mine).

Not only is there the tendency to violence against such people, there is also the defence, born from desperation, put up by the victims of this indiscriminate and often impersonal violence, perpetrated by unidentifiable individuals or groups. They often decide to attack, before they are attacked – a sort of pre-emptive raid, as it were. Often, however, these victims have no real idea who their attackers were so they lash out and this is when innocent people get hurt and things spiral out of control, with gang warfare, vigilante groups, a call for individuals to be permitted to carry guns and so on. This is a steep slippery slope to anarchy.

The only answer to this is education – it is always better to be pro-active rather than re-active. It means educating people in how to deal with others, in relationships and we all have relationships with someone, and because we are all the same. We all bleed when hurt, we all suffer emotional pain, we all have hopes and aspirations, we all wish to live in peace and to be happy. All this, believe it or not, means understanding the importance of ethics, and the inevitable consequences that will follow, if ethics is ignored.

So like an old refrain, a familiar song, re-sung, I repeat my mantra:- Ask yourself “am I treating others the way I would like to be treated?” Also, ask yourself the question, “if everyone, (yes, I mean everyone), did what I am doing, or propose to do, would the world be a better place?” If the answer to either question is no, then don’t do it.

The solution to violence will not happen overnight, of course, and not everyone will listen, or accept what is said. But a start must be made and ethics really is that simple.