Since the beginning of this course my perspective on violence has definitely changed, I walked into this course thinking that violence wasn’t as big of a problem as it was portrayed to be. I thought people were just exaggerating and I wasn’t good at accepting other people’s opinions and perspectives. I realize now how I couldn’t have been more wrong, violence has been a problem since long before I was born, and I was just ignorant to the endless forms of violence and the many problems surrounding them. However, after taking this course I have gained a new perspective on violence and believe that society needs to focus more towards it.
I believe that violence will always be in our nature; we can limit the violence we do to each other but ultimately it cannot be eliminated. We see violence everywhere, a person cannot go a day without witnessing some form of violence. In order to limit the violence we do to each other we would have to take violence out of the media and entertainment which just would not be possible, too many people make money off of the media and entertainment and viewers only want to see violence. I believe that to stop violence completely would be impossible, the best we can do is teach about violence, limit the violence we broadcast in media, and become more strict in stopping violent acts.
The presentations we had to make and present to one another was one of the main assignments that opened my eyes to all of the different forms of violence. Before the course I knew that there were more forms of violence than physical, such as emotional or psychological but I truly did not know how many actions could be placed in those categories, some I wouldn’t even thought of. During the discussions I was able to see other people’s perspectives in a new light; however, I didn’t always agree. Although I didn’t always agree with people’s perspectives, I was still able to learn from them and realize that not everyone feels the same way about violence. Knowing that not everyone feels the same about violence is important, if not everyone feels the same then it would be impossible to completely eliminate violence. Perhaps I think something is a violent act and you do not, I would say that the action should be stopped; however, you would believe that the action isn’t violent and therefore does not need to be stopped. This is the problem we face with violence, if not everyone feels the same how can it ever be stopped?
War is another topic that was brought up frequently throughout the class. Some people thought war was violent but was fine if all the right criteria were met, others believed all war was wrong and that we should look for a new tactic in order to use for political gain. The problem is, war has been a very effective tactic for thousands of years and some people don’t see the reason to change what isn’t broken. I for one believe that war is fine if it is for the right reasons but that does not mean I think the violence war brings is just. I don’t believe war is fine because I think the violence is fine, I believe it is fine because the men and women in militaries volunteered, they know that they are going to live violent lives and if they want to go to war then who am I to say they are wrong?
Altogether my perspective has changed and I now understand other people’s perspectives after taking this course. I have learned that violence is a bigger problem than what I first thought but I have also learned that not everyone feels the same about the problem. I understand that we need to stop and limit some forms of violence but I believe that violence can never be eliminated from human nature.
