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Why is violence so prevalent in Western culture?

Mole

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As to why we're so violent here... I'd say it's a mixture of sociopaths, people with anger issues, mentally ill, apathetic citizens, misguided youth, drugs, and socioeconomic statuses.

Hey, hey, you have forgotten guns.
 

Mole

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I frequented a wine bar called, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire as We Know It Today, and naturally we projected the fall of Rome onto the West today.

It was a delicious form of schadenfreude, a secret form of knowledge, a gnosis, denied to our fellow citizens, who believed things were getting better and better.

And we believed that the ones who were better than our fellow citizens were us.

Until Pogo the Possum told us, We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.
 

Tellenbach

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Aggressive Personality Linked To Testicle Size

Dr. Xing Wang made the connection after studying inmates in a maximum security prison in the Hang Dong province of China. He noticed that men who were being held for violent crimes, were 69% more likely to have enlarged testicles.

Does this mean that Western men have bigger balls than other people? Perhaps.
 

wildflower

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I'm not surprised by this study. Children copy what they see after all. When I was a kid I learned a few bad words from soap operas and wanted to try them out. Good thing the adults corrected me immediately and told me it was not okay. I think it matters whether violent behaviors shown on tv are condoned (directly or indirectly), so this is why I think it's really NOT okay to show violent characters as heroes -- especially in programs for young kids.

Don't think it's limited to Western culture, though.
years ago i remember reading about a study that said if kids had good parental role models then they aren't really affected by the violence they see on TV i.e. it didn't cause them to become more violent. if the kids didn't have good parental role models then the violence on tv did have an effect on the kids level of violence. that sort of goes with what you are saying and i'd agree because my parents taught us good values and violence on tv did not have one iota of difference on my levels of aggression.

while there are probably many factors that affect our rates of violent i think what one is taught & modeled by their parents is one the biggest, if not the biggest, factor. while violent crime in the US has gone down since the highest levels in the 90s it is still much higher than it was say in the 50s. when you hear reports in the US of violent crime declining they are only in relation to the peak in the 90s. overall it has gone way up.
 

Elfboy

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Prevalent compared to which cultures? I think violence is pretty prevalent in most cultures, the only thing that makes Western culture different compared to other cultures (when it comes to violence) would be the outrageous colonialism back in the day. But even colonialism isn't something purely Western; China did it too! So as far as I know colonialism is something Europeans and Asians do. Now what do Europeans and Asians have in common? When their ancestors left Africa, they had sex with Neanderthals and now both Europeans AND Asians have a bit of Neanderthal DNA. Neanderthals were assholes (close-minded, xenophobic, violent, everything), so let's say violence is prevalent in Western culture because we're part Neanderthal.

I read somewhere that Neanderthals may in fact have been matriarchal and less violent than homo sapiens sapiens (though the source was a tad questionable)
 

Kullervo

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Well testicle size is dependent on T levels, which influence aggression. This study makes sense as far as prison inmates are concerned. The problem is, the average free testosterone levels of men have been declining in Western countries for the last fifty years. I believe that I, and other men of my generation, are substantially less masculine than those who have preceded us - not just in mentality but in appearance. The inverse is true for women. The population appears to be becoming more androgynous.

Therefore, other explanations need to be sought for an increase in violence if there is one.

I actually don't see any evidence that violent crime is increasing. What I do see, however, is such activity being indirectly encouraged.
 

21%

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years ago i remember reading about a study that said if kids had good parental role models then they aren't really affected by the violence they see on TV i.e. it didn't cause them to become more violent. if the kids didn't have good parental role models then the violence on tv did have an effect on the kids level of violence. that sort of goes with what you are saying and i'd agree because my parents taught us good values and violence on tv did not have one iota of difference on my levels of aggression.

while there are probably many factors that affect our rates of violent i think what one is taught & modeled by their parents is one the biggest, if not the biggest, factor. while violent crime in the US has gone down since the highest levels in the 90s it is still much higher than it was say in the 50s. when you hear reports in the US of violent crime declining they are only in relation to the peak in the 90s. overall it has gone way up.
That's interesting. I believe the rise of violence is more closely linked to broken families more than violent media. Individualism is another thing. While individualism in itself is a good thing, I think a lot of unguided youths are raised with the "me-first" mindset, which might have something to do with being prone to violence as well.
 

Cellmold

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You have seen my pics. I bet I am a good five years younger than you. Never assume that somebody holds a particular view based on their age; not all Millennials are lemmings.

In reality popular culture glorifies violence, especially through music (negro/ghetto music such as rap, as well as the various types of metal) and films. The amount of violence in recent movies (90s onward) is a lot higher than in old ones as well. The James Bond franchise is a good example - compare the Sean Connery and Roger Moore era films to more recent ones.

I was joking I know what you look like. I'm one of the last people to assume age means much of anything, beyond maybe allowing you more chance to experience, but not necessarily that you will have experience. Quality over quantity every time. Also biology.

Disclaimer this next bit is probably going to be TLDR but it's hard to break my view into a simple set of statements.

And yes popular culture is filled with violence. James bond is a good example, although even the older movie's from the 60's onwards are filled with casual violence and usually bad puns.

Although violence has always been a part of humanity, just looking at history alone. Is it that people have a notion of what it means to be civilised? And they are shocked when the reality of human nature's darker aspects comes rearing its head, contradicting their assumptions about what a so-called enlightened society should be like.

I'm not necessarily saying humans are violent by nature, although our evolution is against us, but I think mainly it is the pressure cooker of many different elements socially, economically, religiously and politically that when pushed together tend to clash. But that's also natural for opposing forces in general and often they aren't even really opposing, so much as similar drives under the guise of a different context and label. This is also not a new issue for our world, it goes on all the time; that pushing of various forces and interests until one is assimilated or destroyed and another emerges victorious or evolves.

In essence one of the most damaging notions is of tolerance. Tolerance implies something should be put up with, like a nuisance such as a fly in the house. But the reality is that we need to be able to progress beyond this attachment to I and mine, to fight against our own ignorance and ingrained habits. This goes for everywhere from my perspective, not just western countries.

It starts with a change of approach and attitude towards what we expect from the world. There are so many important issues with regards to just our continued existence for violence to be a singular issue in and of itself.

But these are just words and observations, action is more valuable I think and something I'm lacking in.
 

Mole

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popular culture is filled with violence.

There is a big difference between violence on the screen and actual violence.

And most of the violence on the screen is choreographed. It is a stylised violence for entertainment, while real violence makes most of us sick. So they won't show real violence on the screen.
 

Eilonwy

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Because western culture is a culture of perceived scarcity and violence is a reaction to competition for resources.
 

Comeback Girl

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Elfboy

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Because western culture is a culture of perceived scarcity and violence is a reaction to competition for resources.
it's only "perceived" this way by the middle class and rich. if you live in poverty (which many do), it can be incredibly treacherous and scarce of resources.
 

Eilonwy

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it's only "perceived" this way by the middle class and rich. if you live in poverty (which many do), it can be incredibly treacherous and scarce of resources.

This is true. Since I'm in the U.S. and coming from that perspective, if this article and this article are correct, then even our poor are better off, as far as resources go, than most of the rest of the poor in the world, and even better off than many of the well-off in some countries.

However, I'll change what I said to "Because western culture is a culture of real and perceived scarcity and violence is a reaction to competition for resources." so it'll be more accurate.
 

wildflower

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This is true. Since I'm in the U.S. and coming from that perspective, if this article and this article are correct, then even our poor are better off, as far as resources go, than most of the rest of the poor in the world, and even better off than many of the well-off in some countries.

However, I'll change what I said to "Because western culture is a culture of real and perceived scarcity and violence is a reaction to competition for resources." so it'll be more accurate.
i know this is also what i've been told about standards of living when i have been in the developing world. namely, that being middle-class in the US is the equivalent–literally–of living like royalty in nepal. usually, we are told violence is higher where there is greater poverty but in the US we don't realize how much we have compared to the rest of the world and still have high levels of violence for a developed country. so, we have wealth from a global perspective and high levels of violence for the developed world.
 

Mole

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i know this is also what i've been told about standards of living when i have been in the developing world. namely, that being middle-class in the US is the equivalent–literally–of living like royalty in nepal. usually, we are told violence is higher where there is greater poverty but in the US we don't realize how much we have compared to the rest of the world and still have high levels of violence for a developed country. so, we have wealth from a global perspective and high levels of violence for the developed world.

And in particular, you have high levels of gun violence.

And it's a peculiar combination, commented on by your President, and that is the combination of christianity and guns.

And no wonder for -

At the Last Supper Jesus said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”

—Luke 22:36, NIV


And whenever I don't know what to do, I ask, what would Jesus do today? And I know he wouldn't tell me to buy a sword, but perhaps he might recommend a brand new assault rifle.
 

Metamorphosis

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It doesn't seem to be that prevalent in real life, to me. Are school shootings and things like that more common? Sure, but they also provide a ton of attention now and the idea is common knowledge. However, I find it extremely difficult to believe that things like assault are more common now. You can't even get into a fist fight in a public place now without going to jail, when that used to be much more common place. I think that media sensationalism and fear mongering make it seem much worse than it is. Even the statistics are hard to take seriously because I highly doubt that aggravated assault was reported in 1960 like it is today.

Honestly, how often do most of the people here even see something as basic as a person getting punched in real life?
 
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