In our struggle to restrain the violence and contain the damage, we tend to forget that the human capacity for aggression is more than a monstrous defect, that it is also a crucial survival tool.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Our aggression is a deep instinct which survives in all kinds of manifestations in modern man.
When we can lay down our fear and anger and choose responses other than aggression, we create the conditions for bringing out the best in us humans.
Aggression is inherently destructive of relationships. People and ideologies are pitted against each other, believing that in order to survive, they must destroy the opposition.
The most destructive element in the human mind is fear. Fear creates aggressiveness.
No matter how civilized we are and how much society has curbed violent behavior. Human beings still have the same genes they had 10,000 years ago. Our bodies are designed to have a certain amount of physical stress and violence in them. We're designed to run from jaguars and fight to defend our territory.
Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.
We really are creatures of a violent world, biologically speaking - watching violence and learning about it is one of our cognitive drives.
Even in the most peaceful communities, an appetite for violence shows up in dreams, fantasies, sports, play, literature, movies and television. And, so long as we don't transform into angels, violence and the threat of violence - as in punishment and deterrence - is needed to rein in our worst instincts.
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Our capacity to retaliate must be, and is, massive in order to deter all forms of aggression.