Humans are competitive by nature. This characteristic can be the catalyst for violence. Animals and humans alike vie for the best resources and territories. When any of these are threatened, we do not hesitate to fight. The only difference is that we have been seduced by society and religion. This means that we fight not only for our own sake, but for the sake of our community. In America, the senseless violence is fed by paranoia about losing our throne atop the world. For millions upon millions of years animals have been competing and fighting over the best resources and territories. Human beings of the modern era are not much different. The whole of ancient Greece went to war over one woman, Helen, when the Trojans kidnapped her.
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We have this need to retain or improve our status in society, and we do that by buying a bigger house, a nicer car, or the new Jordans. Everything in America is focused around individual expectations. When an individual fails to live up to these high standards set by our society, they turn against it, leading to violence. Stephanie McCrummen wrote an incredible piece for the Washington Post about the environment in which Dylann Roof – the young man who killed nine black people at a church in Charleston – lived in. The family he stayed with before the shooting were high school dropouts, living in a trailer and working odd jobs, wasting away their days drinking, smoking, and playing Xbox. She calls it an American void, where they are left to live a fairly meaningless existence. The need to be heard in a country that will not listen can be an important ingredient to violence. Dylann Roof failed to live up to American expectations, and that is probably a common thread that links the people who commit these horrible hate crimes and senseless shootings. They are sucked into the cycle of cynicism. In Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore says that 87% of Flint falls below the poverty line now that the auto industry no longer employs as many people. A six-year-old shooting a classmate should be a wakeup call to how bad the prospects are for people there. Violence stems from our competitive instincts when they are extinguished by
We have this need to retain or improve our status in society, and we do that by buying a bigger house, a nicer car, or the new Jordans. Everything in America is focused around individual expectations. When an individual fails to live up to these high standards set by our society, they turn against it, leading to violence. Stephanie McCrummen wrote an incredible piece for the Washington Post about the environment in which Dylann Roof – the young man who killed nine black people at a church in Charleston – lived in. The family he stayed with before the shooting were high school dropouts, living in a trailer and working odd jobs, wasting away their days drinking, smoking, and playing Xbox. She calls it an American void, where they are left to live a fairly meaningless existence. The need to be heard in a country that will not listen can be an important ingredient to violence. Dylann Roof failed to live up to American expectations, and that is probably a common thread that links the people who commit these horrible hate crimes and senseless shootings. They are sucked into the cycle of cynicism. In Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore says that 87% of Flint falls below the poverty line now that the auto industry no longer employs as many people. A six-year-old shooting a classmate should be a wakeup call to how bad the prospects are for people there. Violence stems from our competitive instincts when they are extinguished by