Violence in my life
In this paper I will attempt to share my own relationship to and experiences with violence. When I was in grade ten I witnessed a classmate of mine collapse to the ground after another had accidentally hurled a bowling ball at his head. He collapsed to the ground and was rushed to the hospital. As far as I know this situation was resolved by exchanging apology letters.
The only fight that I’ve ever seen was behind the hockey rink when we used to hang out there on Friday nights in high school, It was two guys with a big group of people waiting around for something to happen. The way I remember it, both kids danced around looking silly, pushed each other a few times and that was the end of it, everybody scattered.
I had a difficult time beginning to write this paper because it seems as though all of my experiences with violence were as mundane as elaborate accidents and overhyped pushing matches. I know that violence is a huge part of millions of peoples lives daily, however it seems to be something and I cannot easily relate to. This is conflicting for me because I do have very strong opinions about violence.
To help clarify my thoughts I decided to consult a dictionary to determine the exact definition of the word.
It is defined as;
1- Behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.
synonyms: brutality, brute force, ferocity, savagery, cruelty, sadism, barbarity, brutishness
2- strength of emotion or an unpleasant or destructive natural force.
synonyms: intensity, severity, strength, force, vehemence, power, potency, fervency, ferocity, fury, fire
I guess you could call me ignorant, naïve or sheltered, I might call myself lucky. I find it very difficult to see the other side of this argument so I guess the only definition of violence that I can directly relate to is the second. Allow me to use it in a sentence “I am violently against senseless and excessive violence”
The whole idea of violence seems so black-and-white; treat others as you would like to be treated. It is hard for me to imagine how conflict can escalate to such degrees as to cause World Wars. The New York Times stated in a 2003 article ”At least 108 million people were killed in wars in the twentieth century.” I would be interested in knowing how many of these men, women and children Worth fighting for a cause he felt so passionately about that they would give their own lives versus how many of these deaths where the product of conscription or civilian deaths.
I know that there are numerous repercussions of violence in regards to wars including decline of birthrate, disconnected families, destruction of fertile soil, crops and livestock, large amounts of our global population suffering from PTSD. The most reoccurring reason for becoming involved in a war that I have found so far is freedom. It would seem to me, that there must be other obvious ways of obtaining freedom.
Over the course of this class I intend to participate in debates and carefully listen to both sides of each debate and all opinions in between. I intend to learn as much as I can about the history of violence as well as the current state of global violence. In 1597 Sir Francis Bacon famously said “knowledge is power”. The more knowledge I have on the subject of violence the larger positive impact I can have on society. By no means do I plan on transforming myself into a crusader with a cause (as I do not support the carnage inflicted by the first Crusaders), though I do feel it is important to be an inform citizen.
