Enlightenment.

“A choir is made up of many voices, including yours and mine. If one by one all go silent then all that will be left are the soloists.

Don’t let a loud few determine the nature of the sound. It makes for poor harmony and diminishes the song.” 

― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

There is a lot of hand wringing and whining on the internet regarding gun violence, police brutality, bullying, torture, religious violence, prejudice and in general the brutal nature of society.  I am not a scholar or a social scientist but it is evident to me that all of these things have been part of human experience for some time.  My introduction to this behavior was subtle a first and it just became part of my life.  Early on my father used teasing, spanking and bullying as a way to disciple me and “teach me a lesson.”  His techniques were not unique, many of my friends during the nineteen forties and fifties had the same experience and few were “spared the rod”.  In Catholic school we were told of the horrors of hell and that we would be tortured for eternity if we did not shape up and “fly right”.  We also were served a daily dose of quilt and the need for repentance. Our playground was a hot bed of teasing and bulling.  We also all played cowboys and indians and killed a lot of “redskins” and played with cap guns, our weapon of choice.  We had lot of violent toys, bb guns, tomahawks, slingshots and many of my friends killed birds and some use their bb guns on animals and humans.  Saturday  theater matinee’s were filled with good old western justice with shoot outs and an occasional hanging.  Before I had a family, I witnessed two wars and saw scores of war movies that glorified killing.  My children were brought into the world during the Vietnam war and a new batch of war toys was given to the public.  As I write this I can hear that old refrain that the good old days produced strong adults with a good sense of right and wrong and the kids of today  are coddled and spoiled. We complain that video games are making them violent and they have no respect for authority. If your parents were raising you now, vs. decades ago, they’d be subject to these influences, too.

It is evident to me that most Americans like or tolerate violence in some form. You might enjoy the quarterback throwing a “bomb” or a great tackle rings a players bell.  Perhaps you like secret agents dispatching a few bad guys with explosives. Watching a boxer get his “brain rotated” might be something you enjoy. A vengeful pitcher “beaning” a  player to get even might be your cup of tea. You may also get your fix of violence and bigotry from soap operas, reality shows, or police dramas.  Some simply enjoy bad behavior over and over on U tube. I can’t forget about videos of racing accidents that are often slowed down so we can see someone die in slow motions. 

What a surprise. Everyone is now decrying the violence of society.  At seventy-five, I am becoming resigned to the fact that we cannot overcome the propensity for  violence,

revenge, and prejudice. I do not believe marches, committees, religion, as it is practice today,  or science will help us climb out of our prehistoric cave into the light of knowledge.  We are already serving time in Dante's hell.  Allegorically, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul towards God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin.

Our journey of of the dark cave of despair and toward our god and the rejection of violence, will only happen with enlightenment and leadership.  Like the enlightenment or Age of Reason, from the 1650s to the 1780s, the cultural and intellectual forces in Western Europe emphasized reason, analysis and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority. It was promoted by philosophers and thinkers and it challenged the authority of institutions and practices that were deeply rooted in society; there was discussion of ways to reform society with tolerance, creativity, cooperation and reason.

Human cooperation, even more necessary than violence for survival, has evolutionary roots as deep as those of human conflict. Groups may fight because of environmental pressures or resource scarcity, they may also have strong incentives to expand trade relations and build alliances that benefit both parties. The capacity for peaceful and cooperative relationships was surely more essential for the survival and success of the species than bellicosity. Violent resource competition and population density certainly influenced human evolution, predisposing us to competition and violence. But those same pressures can predispose us to cooperation as well.

Competition and Resource Scarcity

And NUH is the letter I use to spell Nutches, 
Who live in small caves, known as Niches, for hutches. 
These Nutches have troubles, the biggest of which is 
The fact there are many more Nutches than Niches. 
Each Nutch in a Nich knows that some other Nutch 
Would like to move into his Nich very much. 
So each Nutch in a Nich has to watch that small Nich 
Or Nutches who haven't got Niches will snitch. 

Dr. Seuss - On Beyond Zebra (1955)

• The total cost of violence to the U.S. was conservatively calculated to be over $460 billion while the lost productivity from violence amounted to $318 billion. California was found to have the highest state burden of violence at over $22 billion per year while Vermont has the lowest at $188 million. For each state taxpayer, the total economic cost of violence varies greatly, from $7,166 per taxpayer in Washington D.C. to $1,281 for Maine taxpayers. [2012 US Peace Index, Institute for Economics and Peace] - See more at: http://peacealliance.org/tools-education/statistics-on-violence/#sthash.pbVoLVs9.dpuf