Sunday, April 13, 2008

Power vs. Violence

For the past week, the Reaper has come across many videos on YouTube. Some were sent and some I found but they seem to carry a similar theme: violence. Here is the first video:


The girls beat up the victim because she was “trash-talking” on MySpace (or some similar site). While I am okay with one vs. one fights that both parties enter in to; this situation is ridiculous and the girls deserve a punishment (parents too). Violence has started to grow among the children these days and more situations like these are going to pop up unless people, especially parents, learn how to think about violence. Here is another aspect of violence that has been growing:


Like the creator, many people give in to this fear mongering and are afraid.

In order to give a different point of view I want to quote something from the 20th century political philosopher Hannah Arendt:

Violence can always destroy power; out of the barrel of a gun grows the most effective command, resulting in the most instant and perfect obedience. What never can grow out of it is power.

She goes on to say that only when an individual or institution begins to lose power, does that entity resort to violence. Power is based on people’s opinions and majority rule, not who has the most guns. Take away our guns and force this country to appeal to other nations with our ideals and resolve. Violence gains obedience, power gains allies.

If our country wanted to be truly great and wanted power, they would not worry about how many guns they have. Our country seems pretty well off militaristically, we have proven it repeatedly. The teens obviously do not find the power of words and chose to hurt this girl violently, who obviously did not want to fight. I consider both the shows of violence to be a weakness that the nation and the citizens need to overcome.

::GR::
no idea can ever justify an orgy of blood- jose marti

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In the case of these teenagers my question is where are their parents? Too many people think that teenagers have the "power" to make adult decisions. Obviously they do not. When the power of a parent is used correctly violence is taken out of the equation completely. When I say power I mean teaching your child ethics and morals from an early age can most times prevent them from making stupid decisions like these kids did. Too many teenagers are given too many freedoms by society and their parents lack the integrity to go against the grain and rein their kids in.