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Violent Behavior: Misunderstood by the Masses

Violent behavior is not necessarily either genetic or environmental. It is in most cases a combination of both in different levels. As we all know some of the most calm, cool, collected people in the world have just snapped and gone ape$#)t on a bank or restaurant full of people. On the other extreme we have people with extremely violent histories in their families including abuse of many forms getting themselves together and becoming Buddhist monks.

Certainly there are people who are born with more violent tendencies than others and there is no way to predict who these people are before about age 8, but if one of these more violent people is also brought in a more violent household, the chances of them being a violent person is drastically increased comparative to if they were brought up in a calm, loving home. It comes down further to the choices these people are shown and the consequences they understand for each choice. If there is no effective consequence to each action, good or bad, no cause-effect link is made and they test their limits as far as they will go. The parents by this time are just starting to teach right and wrong and with no base to do it on they are frustrated as the child is incapable of understanding the consequences he is now being shown to actions which before received none.

Even further boiled down it comes down to the choices we make ourselves. After we have been taught right and wrong, cause and effect, do and do not, and have been put into the general public it is still up to us to decide our fate. We, with all the choices put before us can use these tools to decide how we will handle each situation. If you were in high school in the 70s and 80s you will probably remember that fights were not uncommon, and everyone would just watch and let them go until one or both gave up and then everyone would jump in and stop it. Or so I've been told. Now, even in Canada where I am, if there's a fight the principal is there in seconds and someone's going to not be there for a week. The right wing of course have been blaming all the violence and sex on TV for causing violence in people. Let us not forget however that the whole world has had a very violent history, not caused by TV. The effect of TV, if any, is that it has removed all sense of honour in the violence. But that's a debate for another strand. Getting back to my point, the question of whether violence is genetic or a result of our environment is almost moot as it is both and neither at the same time in most of the population.

To close I leave you with this:
I am, in my opinion, genetically violent and constantly crave a fight. But I have never been in one. I have had many opportunities and simply avoided them despite that little voice saying "You can't avoid it forever." I have resisted, and it is a right of mine and yours to make that decision.

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