Violence: US ranks alongside North Korea, Syria, and Afghanistan…..and Americans are Satisfied

The United States of America has been ranked as the 128th most peaceful country in the world according to the 2019 Global Peace Index, which ranks 163 countries from most peaceful to most violent, taking into account both foreign and domestic violence from a single nation, as well as other factors such as ease of access to purchase firearms within that nation. In other words, the United States ranks in the bottom quarter, or most violent quarter, of 163 countries regarding its population’s attitudes on violence concerning both external and internal conflict. This puts the US in the same quarter as Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea, Russia, and Iraq — nations that many Americans would consider extremely violent.

Another interesting finding from the Global Peace Index is the following trend: “As peacefulness increases, so does satisfaction with life, freedom, and feelings of respect.” With the exception of the United States, that is. The US has some of the highest ratings of perceived “freedom of life” and “standard of living satisfaction” ratings among its populace, notwithstanding being in the bottom quarter of peacefulness on a global scale.

This certainly says something about the American people. Despite being a violent nation compared to other nations globally, Americans are either completely unaware of this fact, or do not seem to care. Or maybe Americans believe that violence between people is inevitable and cannot be helped.

It has been widely broadcast recently that many individuals and communities around the world are afraid. When people become afraid, they tend to isolate themselves. People get suspicious, they start to blame others. However, according to the global peace index, most of the rest of the world is more peaceful than the Americans, which raises an important question: What exactly are Americans afraid of?

Well, I am not sure Americans even know. But here is my explanation as defined by what I call the Tragedy of Isolated Perspective, or TIP.

TIP begins with a traumatic societal event, such as a recession. Take what occurred in the 1930s, which resulted in the isolationist nationalism that overtook much of Europe and Asia, or what happened after 2008, which resulted in the isolationist nationalism that has overtaken much of the Western World again. When money is short, and things are uncertain, despite individuals working hard as they possibly can, we sometimes begin to blame each other. When we start to blame others, we ourselves start to become isolated. We start only listening to those we know well and ignoring those who we might perceive to be a part of a different community who may have different opinions.

However, this trend towards isolation makes it so that our information becomes limited. The less information we receive from others, the more we start to assume about others. The more we start to assume about others, the less accurate our perspective and knowledge-base becomes. Ultimately, isolation leads to misinformation, and thus misunderstanding. But we always ask ourselves how can so many people be misinformed in the Age of Information? When we lose our connections, and thus information and perspectives from the world outside of our own little sphere, we lose all the ideas, knowledge, perspectives, of the rest of the world. And when we lose those, we lose our empathy for the rest of the world. The loss of empathy leads us to seek less information about those who differ from us, and the process becomes a cycle. This cycle is the Tragedy of Isolated Perspective.

The United States is filled with tens of thousands of communities, whether those communities are ethnic, socioeconomic, regional, interest-based, or anything else that people may have in common. However, we all must remember that interconnectivity between individuals as well as between entire communities is essential for the longevity of civilization. All innovation comes from the mixing and matching of previous knowledge and perspectives. Thus, building and maintaining connections between various communities to allow for the exchange of ideas and perspectives becomes the key for societal progress. Seek out those you do not understand and form a new human connection.

Interconnectivity on a global scale is the only way to not only preserve societal advancement, but to prevent a regression of humanity.

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