Killer Instinct
is killing a part of life?
I believe it is a real thing and the potential source of many ills plaguing modern society.
Human history has forever been bathed in blood. Whether it be the enemy tribes one would destroy or the prey one would catch and devour. We can’t deny this.
Death does indeed beget life.
So is the urge to kill a part of our nature? Could it be imperative to our well-being?
Modern man, homo sapiens domestico fragilis (Check: http://youtu.be/EuKW0Z6m-Do by the enlightened Arthur Haines), is a fragile and domesticated descendant far removed from a stronger and more robust ancestor. It is not purely physical either. Such is the extent of our domestication we scarcely say or act as we truly intend for fear of reprimand or reprisal. And if it is true that killing is a normal function of our being than denying it would have some very resounding repercussions.
I would be the first to state that “killing is wrong”. But I would also be quick to defend anyone I love with lethal force. That’s pretty acceptable right? Is that because it is justified? What of the family of the one I’ve just slain in defence? Can they now justly exact their vengeance upon me? I suppose they can. And so begins an endless cycle of tit-for-tat, or quid-pro-quo.
For a human being to perform any act, no matter how despicable, they need only to justify it in their own mind. A recent example is a Muslim jihadist beheading an American journalist: deplorable in our eyes, exalted in theirs.
This can blur the lines of “right and wrong”. Which is merely an invisible line we are conditioned to stay behind depending on what society and time period we are born in.
Is it an ancient desire to bare our teeth and flex our muscles lest we be deemed weak and abandoned by our tribe?
In trying to quell violence in modern society we must realise that violence and death is nothing new.
Violence in video games and cinema don’t cause little Johnny to open fire on his classmates.
Many a digital life has been extinguished by my button presses and I do not harbour the intent to shed real blood. “But the kid’s will be desensitised to violence” they say.
Desensitised no, entertained yes. Which I agree could be problematic. Maybe it’s the shadow of the desire to exert our power. The same power that can be used for good.
But because it’s not actual death I can’t buy into the fact that it’s an issue of being desensitised to it. They rarely, if ever, see the actual death that occurs because of their existence. Most sane children, once they feel they have committed an unjust infliction of pain, don’t continue in doing so.
The deep dark desire for death is what created these products, not the other way around.
The Colosseum didn’t force the ancient Romans to kill, it was built so they could kill and enjoy the spectacle.
Most every society around the world had public execution at some point and regular townspeople were delighted to go and watch Pierre face the guillotine. Don’t forget the rotten vegetables!
Perhaps if little Johnny had hunted and slain his own dinner the previous night he may have been wholly satiated and wouldn’t bring an assault rifle to class.
I’m aware this is a big leap, I’m attempting to illustrate that this is a much more complicated and larger issue. One that involves our very nature.
Maybe it’s our vain attempt to evade death or our disassociation with it as a society.
At a particularly bloody car accident the emergency services erect a sheet to prevent rubber-neckers from catching a glimpse of the deceased.
We use the term “beef” instead of “dead cow”. (Interestingly, in Mandarin Chinese they use the term “牛肉” (niu rou) which literally translates into “cow meat”. Same goes for all meats. In English it is because of our history. Check: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/85638/normans-vs-saxons-cow-beef-sheep-mutton-chicken)
The news reports on war don’t show the actual occurrences of violence so it’s not understood in it’s entirety by those who aren’t active participants.
The elderly are shut away in aged care facilities and left to die alone instead of in the company of their families.
If all this were true, war would be a natural state of human existence. Before UAVs and WMDs the ancient tribes had to actually kill (or defend) with their own hands. Or at the very least witness the death they perpetrate with their own eyes. We now have the capacity for mass death at the press of a button.
As loathe as I am to say it, killing is a part of living.
Even if you’re a vegan, that lettuce still died for you. (Food for thought: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/07/03/plants-can-hear-insects-chewing_n_5555049.html)
So maybe it’s our relationship to death that has twisted us so. Our denial of our violent primal ancestry and our neurotic overprotective urge to cloak it if it appears.
If we took the life of the pig we would further cherish the bacon.
If we saw the mangled corpse of the speeding driver we would slow down.
If we felt the suffering and injustice in the world we’d make an attempt to end it.
If we had a consciousness of our own death we would live better.
In knowing death we could know life.
