Where Does All the Violence Come From?
The Left or the Right?
I was on the way to the mall this morning when a question popped into my mind. I turned to my husband who was driving and said,
“I wonder if historically the left or the right have resorted to violence more often to reach their goals?”
When a thought pops into my mind out of the blue, I jot it down on my iPhone. That’s generally how I get ideas for my next Medium piece. Fortunately, I rarely lack ideas. There’s an abundant supply in my brain apparently.
Sometimes, I start writing immediately, but as with this particular question, at other times research is required.
I had a preconceived notion that left-leaning groups were less violent but was interested in seeing what I could find out. Ideologies can trigger strong emotions and neither the right nor the left are exempt.
Whether in love or war, humans tend to be emotional rather than logical.
I also can’t reconcile violence with democracy. Those two seem incompatible to me. However, freedom lovers from democratic countries all over the world are often willing to enforce their own beliefs on others. That I can’t deny.
Below you will find a few articles that I perused online.
I don’t consider my research skills to be of very high quality and most of my questions regarding ideologically induced violence remain unanswered, but I do think that it’s time to take a good hard look at what makes people kill each other over belief systems.
I can better accept the tribal need to fight in order to eat.
That’s a strong survival instinct in all of us. However, carrying out violent acts to change cultural traditions and belief systems and thereby force others to adhere to your own core values is another matter altogether.
I’m also completely baffled by the realization that despite such a high degree of religion permeating societies across the globe, violence still thrives.
In fact, it is the devout that have often waged war not just to eat but to defend their particular beliefs. Christianity has been no exception. Part of the need to conquer was to replace what the conquered tribes held sacred with what the conquerers believed was the truth. When I examine American culture, I see a bountiful supply of hardcore believers who are driven to domestic terrorism, slaughter, and the making of death threats to further their cause.
We’ve seen an abundance of mass shootings and have a long warring history.
The US can lay claims to 225 years of waging war.
Despite our pride in being a Christian nation, the war machine has literally been at the core of our very existence. So many from the far right bemoan the loss of Christian values in modern society, but I don’t see where religion made any difference.
In fact, it’s quite likely that our Christian ideologies produced a more violent society.
I like to think that the left tends to be less violent and punitive. That they can stand for their secular beliefs without resorting to violence. The articles that I’ve stumbled upon tend to imply that I’m right but there’s a lot more research needed on the topic. Historical, psychological, and sociological research should help us understand these all too human responses that create conflict often resulting in violence.
In the dozen or so articles that I read comparing the relationship that the left, the right, and Islam have with violence, there was considerable disparity.
The left had a history of less ideological violence whereas the right and Islam were equal although globally Islam was higher.
Either way, humans are very contradictory animals. Their actions often do not align with what they claim to believe. That is, freedom and liberty and god. In a world torn by manmade constructs that bind groups together, giving them a sense of superiority to other cultures, we’ve made little progress when it comes to creating a safer world for our children.
I freely admit that this is merely a thinking out loud kind of article, not a scholarly piece of work.
However, even scholars understand that there’s a need to dig deeper below the surface when it comes to the question that popped into my head this morning. I think the question is multi-faceted and merits a lot more research. Clearly, as our species becomes more technologically advanced, we aren’t making the same kind of social advancements. As I’ve often said — modern humans are merely cavemen with cell phones.
We need evolution not revolution.
Teresa is an author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
