The violence in this world is overwelming....

[LeftHander]

I can't watch anymore. No TV...and violent movies are becoming disgusting. I no longer play video games...no more running around in virtual worlds with weapons strapped on coolly shooting zombies, monsters or other players...our world of entertainment and our world we live in are simply one large orgy of violence.

We glorify violence. Many worship and relish violence as the only form of entertainment.

We know our military makes violence ordinary and routine. Terrorists share the same love of violence.

We see sadly that violence is all too often chosen has a problem solver by not only unstable sick individuals, but by our entire government as we continue to fund violence on a scale that we simply cannot imagine.

The systematic predatory nature of the VA Tech shooting was not random. It was planned and executed as a suicide mission to glorify the status of a rejected individual who adopted violence as a viable means of conflict resolution.

Racism, violence, greed, lies and selfishness is the reality that we live in.

Where is peace and hope?

Where is truth? Where is love?

Every act of violence tears us all down a little bit more and makes us less than human. Every bomb, every fistfight, every act of torture, all of them...real and unreal, injure us all.

When are we ALL going to simply reject violence? (Never?)

I know I cannot participate in our culture of violence any longer. I know many cannot. Because the fear of violence keeps people ready, they arm themselves, they preemptivly act to protect themselves while enjoying the glory of humanity being shredded into bits of flying gore on television.

I reject violence. I may become a victim of it but I will not let it own me. I will not fear it as in doing so I become part of the circle of violence.

sadly...it is inescapable it seems...

Where is Dr. King...where is Ghandi...dead victims of violence....where is our Buddha?...probably dead in Iraq or in a classroom in Virgina....victims of violence...

I am numb.

[Toots]

1. Maybe Imus or Coulter or Limbaugh could explain it all...

When we lose our civility we become uncivilized and start killinbg things. When ever you start calling people names and berating them you become uncivil and that is the hallmark of right wingers..

[Totally Committed]

2. I so agree...

:hug:

TC

[Robbien]

3. true

but please find a way to work past that numbness.

A numb civilian population is exactly what they want. Numbness and apathy make a population easier to control.

[LeftHander]

7. Not numb with ignorance....numb with grief....nt

[The2ndWheel]

4. Can we then be more than human?

There is no perfect state to existence, and each attempt at finding it only increases the scale with which violence can be acted out.

[THUNDER HANDS]

5. I don't know, I have a hunch

that the world is a lot less violent now than it was 1000, 500, 200, 100, 50 years ago.

Think about the number of people killed in WWII - millions upon millions over a 5-year period. Think about Vietnam with 4+ million killed.

Could you imagine how those numbers would look today?

Think about the ancient battles of old, where people were just left to die on the battlefield.

I think the world is a much safer place, but we don't see that because these are the times we're living in.

Human history has always had its share of violence, but I think anyone who was around in the past would trade their world for what we have now.

[The2ndWheel]

6. Our safety is from a lack of diversity

That's the result of all those wars. After every war(or violent act) you have fewer ways of seeing the world, being in the world, and living in the world.

"the world is a lot less violent now"

Yet more destructive. State sponsored violence against a human populations may be down, but any life that is different than us, or stands in the way of production, those are now the choices of eradication.

[AnnInLa]

8. The Normalization of Violence

on a small scale, and on a large scale has already been accomplished. How many of us daydream about moving to a place where things are peaceful, where we don't have to worry about what violence we will be caught up in this time?

maybe it IS the end-times.....lol, sorta.

[Speck Tater]

9. No different now than it has always been

45 students shot in cold blood in Michigan in 1927, Nazi death camps, Salem witch burnings, the Spanish Inquisition, the slave trade, ... Go as far back in history as you like and you will always find heaps and gobs of senseless death, mayhem, and violence. It's part of human nature, part of why the human race is a flawed species doomed to eventual extinction.

[LeftHander]

10. sadly yes....but we can change....

and chose to alter our own nature as we have altered..."nature".

[The2ndWheel]

12. And the resulting mess

from our attempts to alter "nature" give you no pause?

[LeftHander]

13. I didn't say we did a great job doing that....

It is just that we can really do anything we set our minds to...we can save this planet from ourselves....and we can save ourselves from....ourselves...

[The2ndWheel]

15. Well I'd love to hear how we would do it

I'm thinking it would take some sort of violence to cure us of violence, but I'm all ears.

[Hawaii Hiker]

11. Your right,

horrible acts of violence are not new..Hell, the ancient Romans watched people kill each other for spectacle...

It's just today, news gets around alot easier & faster than it ever use to, but horrific acts of violence are nothing new...

I disagree w/the original posters take on TV violence....That's entertainment..I've watched violent movies my whole life (Scarface came out when I was 13, & I've seen that movie probably 35 times) & I've never been a violent or aggressive person....I refuse to blame the entertainment industry for this or ANY tragedy where violence occurs...Blaming "fake" Hollywood violence for the real acts is just making excuses...

[LeftHander]

14. Romans enjoyed violent entertainment too....nt

Is that human nature?

That is the biggest excuse for violence ever....human nature.

Hogwash....people kill because they want to. They know they are killing another person and don't care.

It is more "human" to be kind and loving...violence reduces to humans to "animals" that act on instinct instead of reason. They succumb to greed and power for very basic reasons. "HUMAN" nature is to reason, to forgive and work and live in peace. Animal nature is violent...we don't have to kill to survive any longer.

We are gifted with feelings and reason. Why can't we use them...in a nonviolent manner.