Violence, and it's undertones.

We've talked about the school shootings, and how some of the reasons for such an event could be things like trying to prove you are a man. Sal also talked about how violence is, in our culture, a way of showing that you are a man. I'm bigger, badder, and meaner than you, so I'm more of a man than you are. I just want to put some quotes on here that make me think about violence and 'manhood.'

Was all this bloodshed and deceit - from Columbus to Cortes, Pizarro the Puritans - a necessity for the human race to progress from savagery to civilization? Was Morison right in burying the story of genocide inside a more important story of human progress? Perhaps a persuasive argument can be made - as it was made by Stalin when he killed pesants for industrial progress in the Soviet Union, as it was made by Churchill explaining the bombings of Dresden and Hamburg, and Truman explaining Hiroshima. But how can the judgement be made if the benefits and losses cannot be balanced because the losses are either unmentioned or mentioned quickly?

The power of hiding ourselves from one another is mercifully given, for men are wild beasts, and would devour one another but for this protection.

One does not learn how to die by killing others.

We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.

My Father taught me how to be a man – and not by instilling in me a sense of machismo or an agenda of dominance. He taught me that a real man doesn’t take, he gives; he doesn’t use force, he uses logic; doesn’t play the role of trouble-maker, but rather, trouble-shooter; and most importantly, a real man is defined by what’s in his heart, not his pants.

All of these quotes seem relevant to me on this topic. I, obviously, can't speak for everyone, nor can I speak for all the guys. But it seems like we, we being the male population, are trying to find other outlets for the violence that...seems to be inherent in us. As if it's coded in to our DNA, or, merely, instilled in to us since birth as a result of the society around us. We watch football, and hockey, and sure we love it when someone scores. But damn, aren't most of us just waiting for someone to get demolished. How many of us secretly cheer when someone gets hit by a 350 pound linebacker, and tears an ACL? I'm sure there's other reasons for this, like jealousy, but we just like violence. If we were born in to a society where the Gladiatorial Arena was legal, I bet most of us would be watching it on TV every Sunday Night, cheering for our favorite team. This connects to my other blog, Fascination With Death, I suppose. But this time, it's a question I end on. Is violence so encoded in us, as a result of whatever, that we'll never be able to break free of it, and it's implications? Or can we, as a society, as a people, move beyond it?