Humans and their love of violence

[mutantllama]

Originally Posted by mutantllama

The sad part is people watch it and enjoy it. One question that came to my mind is that are we much different from the Romans and other ancient people? I think it is human nature to watch violence and others be abused and killed. Does everyone have a bit of sadism in them?

This is my response to someone who said something about the video where two girls beat another girl in the gmd social forum. What are your thoughts?

[MetalBooger]

Yes, it is interesting how I once felt compelled to watch faces of death footage, and yes i did, and never again. Perhaps we take joy in suffering of others, but shouldnt we be able to curb our passions for these things and put our energy and time towards more productive and generally harmonious endeavors? I personally feel at fault for allowing such harm to take place, and certainly watching unable to help is a further pain.

[The Poona of Peshwa]

I've always been repulsed by violence, the sort of aestheticized violence you get in Tarantino movies anyways. I can watch brain surgeries and stuff of course.

Being products of a struggle for existence, I think that humans have an innate capacity for cruelty and violence especially towards those who don't look like us, but I think that it requires a social trigger. I think that most small children have an innate aversion to violence, and I honestly think that many people would have trouble killing their own dinner if they had to.

[MetalBooger]

Could it be that during these times when we take joy in others pain that we block our connection with them as humans? In wars i know the enemy is often referred to not as fellow man, but as something more of a sub-human or creature.

[The Poona of Peshwa]

Absolutely. In the American Civil War, a very large percentage of soldiers on both sides fired over their enemies' heads. Compare this with taking Japanese skulls home as trophies, or the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. In today's armed forces, nobody aims high as the training is so rigorous and intense. That'd be why so many soldiers are mentally scarred when they're expected to return to society.

[WeAreInFlames]

I'm not afraid to admit that violence is fascinating. I try to resist those urges, since I'm well aware that they're unhealthy, but I do watch violent movies (usually not the goriest though), I've seen a lot of disturbing photos of dead people, I play violent videogames, and I listen to music that describes truly despicable acts of violence. However, I never really have violent urges.

Anyhoo.

I think that people as a whole do have a tendency towards violence for various reasons. As a means of survival, as a means of social dominance, as a means of expression feelings, as a means of getting what you want.

However, I think that today people have been largely pacified by violent media.

[MetalBooger]

Can it be argued that man has both animal and human natures?

[TheAnonymous]

We evolved from animal, so of course our nature is just an upgrade of that of an animal. However, humans are a lot more sophisticated and I think that may be some of the problem. An animal doesn't enjoy violence because it acts upon its basic animal impulses. Violence isn't good for an animal, it's just there, and if its impulse is to attack it attacks.
In humans it's different. We do occasionally have these impulses, but due to our advanced brains we overcome ourselves and repress those impulses, those urges. When we can't be violent ourselves even when our basic instincts tell us to, we see violence as fascinating, something to be admired, in a way, because we can't achieve it. I think this is at least one of the reasons that we have always been fascinated with violence.

[WeAreInFlames]

Originally Posted by MetalBooger

Can it be argued that man has both animal and human natures?

Well, if humans don't have human natures, who does?

We definitely have some animal nature, but that's kinda been bred out by civilization. I think that people are literally less genetically predisposed to aggression (as a whole, there are certainly exceptions) than they were several thousand years ago. I can't back this with any of those "facts," if you were wondering. I'm going for the truthiness here.

[MetalBooger]

But humans as are cats animals, therefore shouldnt they have the same nature, as in, animalistic goals? Procreation, dominance?

Yet we have something it appears that maybe called human nature. There are those who suggest that some humans seek more monastic lives that go contrary to animal nature, defying the chance for procreation or notions of the ego, which is necessary in my belief to find a mate.

[razoredge]

I dont like violence or cruelity to any degree and have never watched any of that sick shit it disgusts me. However I do like stupid movies where ass holes get exterminated. Where Im going with this is I dont think people should confuse violence with survival instincts. We are all decendents of warriors and hunters but today we are not allowed by law to make a stand on our behalf. Yet little more than 60 years ago they had us storming the beaches of Normandy as expendable utilities or worse the unworthy cause that was Vietnam. Theres a big difference between going to war for a worthy cause and throwing people into the Coliseum for entertainment. So there is a instinctive nature for making a stand and the other a sickness, the two should not be confused.