Why is violence so prevalent in Western culture?

[JAVO]

Why is violence so prevalent in Western culture? Sure, there will always be disagreements which turn into fist fights or an occasional shooting. But more and more frequently, we hear about people trying to resolve their problems at school by shooting it up, or their family problems by killing their family. It seems that the violence is being escalated even beyond what an out-of-control angry person would do. Often, these incidents involve at least some planning ahead of time.

It has gone beyond natural rage.

I think this at least partially explains it, especially the mention at the end about most people learning reflection, empathy, and identifying with others. I think technology often plays a large role in stunting the development of these because it holds our attention often for long periods of time, limiting our social interactions. In fact, it often replaces our interpersonal interactions with artificial surrogates which have no relevance to interpersonal reality.

 

[indra]

availability heuristic

 

[Kullervo]

Here are some reasons why you see more violence now than in previous decades:

The breakup of the traditional family unit. This means children increasingly grow up without good role models, especially fathers
Music and movies that espouse violence (along with other antisocial behaviour)
A general loss of community and social cohesion
Neo-Marxist culture, which tells people that they are fine however they are and normalises degenerate behaviour
Better reporting of violent crime, and more public exposure of criminals

 

[Comeback Girl]

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.

 

[21%]

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.

 

[INTP]

Western society is not our "natural habitat" and some people show more symptoms because of it..

 

[Noll]

Violence has always been prevalent in human history, but the majority of us think it's a bad thing. Still, watching people fight - real or fake, gives the lot of us a thrill. We are also taught indirectly that violence is what gets the job done, no matter the cause. The only way to completely eliminate violence is through extreme propagation and discipline, and I don't think that's a good enough idea to spend that much energy on.

 

[Kullervo]

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.

The civilisations that conquered only did because they had the creativity, ethic and resources to overpower their neighbours.

And FTR: Blacks have been enslaving other blacks in Africa ever since the black race formed tends of thousands of years ago, and they are still doing it today. Africa is the most violent continent in the world. If your hypothesis was right then the Neanderthals must've been civilising influences.

 

[johnnyyukon]

The USA: "God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives.

We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."

Plus for the younger generation breeding a few psychos here and there, the pressure of "being popular" in this country, can lead loners who can't make friends to do naughty things.

But I'm sure there's violence everywhere. And WAY WAY worse. America just gets blown out of proportion cuz "We're number 1, We're number 1!!!" We can't possible have violence issues!!!

 

[SD45T-2]

Why is violence so prevalent in Western culture?

You must not be familiar with Hong Kong movies. Or Korean movies, for that matter.

 

[JAVO]

availability heuristic

I agree, that's a significant factor.

Here are some reasons why you see more violence now than in previous decades:

The breakup of the traditional family unit. This means children increasingly grow up without good role models, especially fathers
Music and movies that espouse violence (along with other antisocial behaviour)
A general loss of community and social cohesion
Neo-Marxist culture, which tells people that they are fine however they are and normalises degenerate behaviour
Better reporting of violent crime, and more public exposure of criminals

Good points.

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.

Prevalent compared to what we would expect in an imperfect Western culture--a mass shooting once a year or so? Or am I asking too much? I'm just limiting things to Western culture for simplicity and because that's what most of us are most familiar with.

When their ancestors left Africa, they had sex with Neanderthals

I think I saw an old 80's movie about that once...

Neanderthals were assholes (close-minded, xenophobic, violent, everything)

You just insulted my great x 10^34 grandfather.

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.

Good point about how the violent behavior is portrayed (unacceptable vs. normal).

Western society is not our "natural habitat" and some people show more symptoms because of it..

Good point. Caged animals are under more pressure.

The USA: "God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes,

I wondered about advertising myself. I think it does often have a side effect of directing our thoughts and goals onto things which matter less. That results in less self-reflection and empathy.

You must not be familiar with Hong Kong movies. Or Korean movies, for that matter.

Ha ha! I'm just trying to limit the scope for the sake of simplifying the discussion.

 

[Mole]

The fact is that tribal and medieval societies were far more violent than modern societies.

And it is our parochialism and our narcissism that makes us think our society is more violent.

 

[Cellmold]

Here are some reasons why you see more violence now than in previous decades:

The breakup of the traditional family unit. This means children increasingly grow up without good role models, especially fathers
Music and movies that espouse violence (along with other antisocial behaviour)
A general loss of community and social cohesion
Neo-Marxist culture, which tells people that they are fine however they are and normalises degenerate behaviour
Better reporting of violent crime, and more public exposure of criminals

Are you 72 and chasing kids off your lawn just after you typed this?

Although the last point is one of the bigger issues, in the sense of glorification. Sensationalism which begets attention while trivialising the victims of such crimes.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

People are violent by nature.

That being said, we are less violent now than we have ever been in the past.

 

[Firebird 8118]

People are violent by nature.

That being said, we are less violent now than we have ever been in the past.

I wonder, though - with the current civil war in Syria, and high tensions between Russians and Ukrainians (or even between Israelis and Palestinians) - could things get worse over time?

 

[Kullervo]

Are you 72 and chasing kids off your lawn just after you typed this?

Although the last point is one of the bigger issues, in the sense of glorification. Sensationalism which begets attention while trivialising the victims of such crimes.

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.

 

[Kullervo]

People are violent by nature.

That being said, we are less violent now than we have ever been in the past.

I disagree with that.

There have been periods throughout history, even quite recent history, where people have been more disciplined than they are now. 1930 - 1965 and 1860 - 1914 are examples that I can think of. I view culture, in fact societies in general, as cyclical rather than directional, and believe that there are a few fundamental constants (human nature) which can't be broken.

The left, by contrast, believe that society has a fixed direction, which will end at a utopia where there will be no distinctions between people. I guess everybody will sit down and smoke weed at that point.

 

[Mole]

I disagree with that.

There have been periods throughout history, even quite recent history, where people have been more disciplined than they are now. 1930 - 1965 and 1860 - 1914 are examples that I can think of. I view culture, in fact societies in general, as cyclical rather than directional, and believe that there are a few fundamental constants (human nature) which can't be broken.

The left, by contrast, believe that society has a fixed direction, which will end at a utopia where there will be no distinctions between people. I guess everybody will sit down and smoke weed at that point.

Societies that have achieved universal literacy are teleological, that is, they have a direction.

On the other hand societies that only have a spoken culture are cyclical.

What is of interest at the present moment is that our literate culture is now becoming the content of our electric culture. Typology Central is the perfect example of this as you are now reading electronic text, that is, literacy as the content of the electric medium

What this means is that we now have a teleological culture as the content of electric culture. And interestingly, the electric culture is cyclical.

How can we understand this?

Well we have been here before in that the manuscript became the content of the print culture; and the theatre became the content of the movies, and so on.

This has occurred time and time again so we can draw the general principal that the content of any culture is the previous culture.

 

[kyuuei]

Id say this is a bit colored.. sometimes I feel like my city is the most violent city in America if I watch the local news too much. It's just sort of the way it goes--we don't see the local news and all the little things that go on in other countries so we think we're the only ones acting that way. It really isn't true.

I'd say the middle east, and parts of Africa have us beat in violence by far.

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.

 

[kyuuei]

The breakup of the traditional family unit. This means children increasingly grow up without good role models, especially fathers
Music and movies that espouse violence (along with other antisocial behaviour)
A general loss of community and social cohesion

I'd generally agree with these as well. Even in low economic environments, a close tightly-knit community can alleviate a lot of violence and criminal acts in their own area. Urban areas sort of lose this out of necessity--it's hard to be networked with that sheer mass of people.