Normalizing Violence

Alef Esteban

Section 2

Week 5

Empire of Death

            The reading this week described violent crimes, how they are connected with certain societal constructions, and the process on how they occur. This chapter was quite intense. I have never read such material that went into gruesome detail of so many violent crimes and despite this, it was a very intriguing read because it made me wonder about society, how they perceive such acts, and the thought processes that go through the minds of the mass murderers. Aside from this, it appears that society accepts murder as something normal. Because humans have been slaughtering each other in history, it has been ingrained that killing someone is normal. Yes, it is something to frown upon, but the thought of a nonviolent society seems to be unrealistic. In addition to this, these mass murderers do not appear to be violent at first glance, but rather they have endured events that traumatically influenced their lives. To cause someone to be highly distressed to the point where they want to murder someone is a serious issue that could be prevented either with outside assistance or not allowing any violent events to occur in the first place. Also, the exploitation of people is a concept that has been passed down and serial killers take advantage of this to assure them that what they are doing is normal. Proper education can prevent this idea from transcending generations and allow people to critically deem what is acceptable or improper.

Question: Can we realistically educate or make aware to people that violence should not be a solution to problems?

Source: https://www.gci.org/files/Men_fighting2_0.jpeg

Violence has occurred throughout history and exploiting people seems to be a norm to society.