Why do we condone violence?

[gratuitous]

12. We don't just condone violence, it's our national religion

Violence is our god, and we have a faith in it that would put a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Mormon, Baha'i, or any other person of faith to shame. We absolve violence of all negative consequences it produces. We blame the victim for walking into the wrong neighborhood or wearing the wrong clothes or founding their country over our oil. Violence works, and we use it as a first resort, last resort, and every resort in between. If violence fails to achieve the end, we either adjust our end or apply more violence. Usually we apply more violence.

When violence is visited upon us, however, we immediately assume the mantle of aggrieved victim, set upon by savages, or Communists, or terrorists, who only understand one thing: Violence. And so we give it to them until one side or the other has (temporarily) had its fill.

Why is it this way, instead of any other way? Because violence is attractive, seductive, and provides some kind of deep-seated release in our psyche. If you advocate for a non-violent approach to a problem, you can count on being ridiculed, and probably the next subject of violence, just to show you that we mean business when it comes to violence. It's been such a feature of our existence and our society for so long, we almost don't even recognize it any more.

As such, the winners in our society got to their position in some measure by inflicting violence on others. Why change a winning formula? And these forces are very powerful, dominating our national discourse. They continue to exercise their hegemony by encouraging citizens to be suspicious of one another. Is someone getting something they don't deserve? We know "those people" are shiftless and lazy; so why is he driving such a nice car? And it's to their advantage (though certainly not to the advantage of the hoi polloi) to have people at each other's throats, hostile toward anyone who can be differentiated, not one of "us," a constantly shifting and re-framed concept.