Definitions Harm to another Inflicting Injury Injury inflicted by deliberate means Observations about Violence Violence comes from the belief that other people cause our pain and therefore deserve punishment. [Mar] Violence is an attempt to achieve justice. [Gil] Violence is about the maintenance of "manhood". [Gil]

The Road to Violence

Violence is often directed toward a hated enemy. This requires overcoming the natural inhibitions we have toward harming another human. A three-stage process is often followed, beginning by homogenizing the members of the opposition. They lose their identity as they become interchangeable members of an opposing group. Next they are dehumanized by emphasizing and exaggerating ways in which they are different from the in-group members. Finally they are demonized by declaring them the source of evil. Since the enemy are all interchangeable, inhuman, and evil, violence against them is now justified.

Pride, Shame, and Violence

Violence is often pursued as an antidote to shame or humiliation. The mistaken concept here is that violence is a source of pride and a defense of honor. "Are you going to stand for that?" "Are you going to take that from him?" "Show him what you are made of" are typical challenges. But the mistaken belief that violent acts can increase pride confuses dominance with status. Pride is based on status—the ability to help—not on dominance—the ability to harm. Although status and dominance are both sources of power, they are not not both sources of pride. Violence cannot increase pride and it cannot reduce shame or humiliation. It can only continue a destructive cycle.

Although violence cannot increase pride, the emotion of shame is often the cause of violence whether directed toward others or towards the self, especially when guilt or empathy is lacking. Inferiority feelings stimulate violent impulses. [Gil]

This analysis leads to a simple conclusion: to reduce violence it is essential to reduce shame and humiliation and to increase empathy, compassion, dignity, and status.

Quotations:

• "The deadliest form of violence is poverty."—Ghandi
• "The most effective and powerful stimulus of violence in the human species is the experience of shame and humiliation."—James Gilligan

References:

[Mar] Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values, by Marshall B. Rosenberg

[Gil] Violence, by James Gilligan

Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty, by Roy F. Baumeister, Aaron Beck

World report on violence and health, World Health Organization, October 3rd, 2002

The Man Who Listens to Horses, by Monty Roberts

Understanding and Preventing Violence, by Albert J. Reiss (Editor), Jeffrey A. Roth (Editor)

Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville

Straw Dogs Humiliation provokes a gentile mathematician to extreme violence.