{"id":993,"date":"2013-05-31T21:28:34","date_gmt":"2013-06-01T02:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/?p=993"},"modified":"2013-05-31T21:28:34","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T02:28:34","slug":"violence-is-never-the-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/2013\/05\/31\/violence-is-never-the-answer\/","title":{"rendered":"Violence is NEVER the Answer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I recently saw a video in which Patrick Stewart talked about violence against women and post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Patrick Stewart Gives Passionate Response to Question At Comicpalooza 2013\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TqFaiVNuy1k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So, here&#8217;s the the take home message.<\/p>\n<p>VIOLENCE IS NEVER THE ANSWER.<\/p>\n<p>To which some might ask, &#8220;What if someone is attacking me or my family?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re not saying you shouldn&#8217;t defend you and your family if attacked. \u00a0But the violence isn&#8217;t being initiated by you either. \u00a0Violence isn&#8217;t the answer&#8230; but what is the question?<\/p>\n<p>Why has someone (individual, group, organization, city, state, or country) resorted to violence in the first place? \u00a0That&#8217;s the question we should be asking ourselves. \u00a0We&#8217;re not saying, in the heat of the moment, roll over and let yourself be hurt.<\/p>\n<p>But I have to ask, what is it that begat the violence&#8230; not from you, but from the attacker. \u00a0Is the person hungry? \u00a0Do they have no money? \u00a0Do they have an addiction problem and want to score another hit? \u00a0Are they desiring a material thing that you happen to have? \u00a0Are they just nuts?<\/p>\n<p>All of these issues that I just described are failures of our society. \u00a0Instead of helping those in need, we tend to vilify them. \u00a0&#8220;Damn panhandlers should just get a job.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My wife, with a Master&#8217;s degree, 7 years of teaching experience and 10 years of experience in managing a non-profit (including grant writing) can&#8217;t get a job. \u00a0How in the hell can a guy who just got out of prison on a drug charge get \u00a0job? \u00a0It&#8217;s not going to happen.<\/p>\n<p>Deal with the individual&#8217;s addiction problem, not his addiction target. \u00a0People who have addictive personalities will just find something else to burn their life on. \u00a0I know this for a fact. \u00a0I&#8217;ve seen it in my own family.<\/p>\n<p>Hunger is a huge issue, even in first world countries. \u00a0According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ers.usda.gov\/publications\/err-economic-research-report\/err141.aspx#.UalZhEA1ofg\">some reports<\/a>, 1 in 6 Americans are food insecure&#8230; meaning that they aren&#8217;t 100% sure when or where there next meal is coming from.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in\u00a0<a title=\"Hunger\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hunger\">hunger<\/a>\u00a0or fear of\u00a0<a title=\"Starvation\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Starvation\">starvation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Wikipedia &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Food_security\">Food Security<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Who wouldn&#8217;t threaten or commit a little violence to make sure your kid has something to eat once a day?<\/p>\n<p>Material things? \u00a0Are just that&#8230; stuff. \u00a0I speak from privilege here because I have stuff now. \u00a0Growing up, I had some stuff. \u00a0I didn&#8217;t have everything. \u00a0But I had new clothes (mostly) and some toys at Christmas. \u00a0Even so, I think we have a lot of stuff we don&#8217;t need. \u00a0I don&#8217;t need a new car and I won&#8217;t for at least a decade or so. \u00a0What would I even do with another one? \u00a0I can only live in one place at a time. \u00a0Why do I need another house?<\/p>\n<p>We live in a culture that has glorified stuff. \u00a0Talk about your false idols. \u00a0We worship stuff. \u00a0I get it, I am totally a part of that society. \u00a0But maybe, just maybe, our society is simply wrong. \u00a0Ideally, we (somehow) make it to a post-scarcity society. \u00a0Technology reduces stuff to how much you can actually store and use. \u00a0When we&#8217;re not using, it&#8217;s recycled into raw materials and created again, the next time we need it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/now.msn.com\/air-jordan-murder-man-shot-teen-killed-over-nike-shoes\">But when a kid kills another kid for a pair of shoes<\/a>\u00a0(this was last year too)? What the hell is wrong with our society?<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t even begin to describe how fundamentally screwed up this is.<\/p>\n<p>No, violence isn&#8217;t the answer. \u00a0But we don&#8217;t know what the real answer is because know one is asking the question.<\/p>\n<p>Why are people turning to violence?<\/p>\n<p>Are they deprived of some fundamental part of life (food, shelter, safety)?<\/p>\n<p>Are they damaged or ill in some way (addicted, PTSD)?<\/p>\n<p>How our society somehow made them feel inferior because they can&#8217;t get the damn shoes?<\/p>\n<p>When someone turns to violence&#8230; and the above applies to leaders of countries as much as the bully at the local middle school&#8230; there is something wrong. \u00a0By not treating the underlying issue, we are making the problem worse.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently saw a video in which Patrick Stewart talked about violence against women and post-traumatic stress disorder. So, here&#8217;s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,36,11,45],"tags":[436,241,435,433,434],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-life","category-skepticism","category-society","tag-addiction","tag-government-2","tag-pstd","tag-violence","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}