Addicted to Violence

Wise words from Parker Palmer:

"Violence is what happens any time we violate the integrity of the other."

(h/t to Paul Soupiset)

Comments

[idelette]

Beautiful. Love his definition.

Don't think I agree with the addiction part, though. Just think it's part of our very human make-up.

Just thinking in terms of how I see it play out in our home. My kids teach me the very base parts of my humanity. Choosing to respond in the opposite spirit requires that I lay down my right to self in some sense. Sometimes the response is simply instinctive, because it's what we've learned and seen. Responding in a different way takes effort, even creativity. It's easier to lash out, because it's our first human response. Would be great if we can become so evolved that our first human response would be Love.

Always love Parker Palmer.

[Dan]

Powerful thoughts, Mike. It's easy for me to stand back and piously criticize America's role in the world...but Parker's words remind me that the issue is much broader, deeper, and more personal that just about military and security. My daily choices about the food I buy, the trash I produce, and the way I speak to my kids are part of the same addiction.

I like the "addiction" descriptor, by the way. Yes, it is part of human nature, but this metaphor reminds me that waking up to the problem and daily admitting that I am an addict may be my first step towards an ongoing, lifelong recovery.

[Cheyanne]

It has been my experience living and breathing and working in the United States that it takes a bona fide therapy professional to actually tell you personally that America is indeed a violent country. Once this admittance is made, there is no measuring stick for morons that needs to ask "More Violent or Less Violent Than What Other Country" which is usually how Americans see things.

The First Commenter above refuses to accept this fact. Apparently, she is going for the universal human concept of violence. i.e. "Everybody's violent....get over it, it's a human thing, it's not the United States. WE are not addicted to violence. We are a peaceful people."

This is a dreamland some Americans live in to try to maintain their sense of nationalistic righteousness. Saying and accepting America/ and some Americans are violent does not mean you do not love your country. You are just stating a fully realizable fact. And the "rest of the world" knows it too. America is violent.