Back, and Irascible as Ever

A Few Thoughts

First, a caveat: everything I blog about is my opinion.  I try to base my opinion on available facts.  That is, facts available to me at the time.  Quite often in my life, especially in recent years, my opinions change as facts come to light that I was previously unaware of.

In this post, I thought I'd pass on something I've been considering a lot lately, and that is, violence.  I think many of us feel that we currently live in one of the most violent periods in American history.  We see statistics, thrown at us right and left, which seem to bear that out.  But, I don't believe we need statistics.  For one thing, statistics are compiled using ever-changing formula, and beyond a certain historical period, are nearly impossible to compare.

So, I am going to go out on a limb, here, and say this: my lifetime has covered the 1950's to the present, and I don't believe we are any more violent in America now than we have ever been.  America, the United States, was founded in violence.  It's growth was violent.  Violence has always been a part of life any American citizen could expect, daily.  It had many sources, from the violent clearing of land and building structures, to enemies both animal and human.  From that, I have reached a personal conclusion.

Violence is sometimes unavoidable.  We used to be able to accept that, yet today, in our modern society, we are finding it increasingly difficult to live with.  And--it should be.  For if History teaches us anything about violence, it is this: violence never SOLVED anything.  Yes, there are historically portrayed 'winners' and 'losers', but, once the violence ended, the problems that made the violence necessary always remain.  Humans can use violence to conquer a society, but, not to conquer a spirit, a idea, a ideal, if you will.  War can result in a winner and a loser, but the idea that caused the war can live on.  Always has, always will.  It can be as large as Nations, or as small as one on one.  You can have a issue with another person, that may escalate to violence ( which, upon later reflection, might have been avoided--or, not ) and defeating that person in a violent confrontation might bring you the feeling you won, and might even gain you a better relationship with that person ( if you don't kill them ), but, it does not mean that you solved that problem. Or even changed anyone's mind.  That problem may pop up again later, from a totally different source.

So, yes, sometimes it is unavoidable.  Sometimes, it is necessary.  Yet, it never solves anything.  So, no matter what the provocation, what we need to learn and understand ( and some have ), is that it should be the very last resource, once every other possible solution has exhausted itself.  And the understanding that, if we indeed go ahead, no matter the outcome, everyone loses.  Because---the problem will still be there.  If we can ever reach a point where we can eliminate the problems that lead to violence, we will finally have come to a point of peak human evolution.

Peace is strength.  We aren't there yet.  I am not there yet.  But, maybe, if we teach it enough, we just might make it.  Well, if we can survive Nature's evolving, that is.  That, however, is a whole different ballgame, and must be discussed in a totally different ballpark.