Violence in society?

Question

Do you think there is more violence in our world because of technological advances in weapons?

Or do you think people are inherently violent anyways and would always find a way to kill or harm with or without deadly weapons? Or do you think it is easier to kill and act upon "animalistic urges" when weapons are easier to use??

Answer 1

We share a lot of our DNA in common with chimps.  Groups of chimps have been observed in the wild to invade the territory of neighboring chimps and to kill them off.

We have done the same thing, even when we were in our hunting-and-gathering stage of development.  Technology has given us weapons powerful enough that if we use them we could very well cause our own extinction.

Harleigh Kyson Jr.

Answer 2

Well, I recently did a project on school shootings and believe it or not, school violence has actually gone down throughout the years! It's just the media that makes it sound like violence is raging.

Answer 3

I have several theories on this but I'm not sure which came first it seems everything is snowballing and maybe it starts something like this.

1.  WWII...the men go to war and women begin to run the businesses that had vacancies because men went to war.

2.  Women did a great job at everything from welding to construction and the businesses liked their work.

3.  The men came back from war and the women went back to working in the home but both the women and the corporations were unhappy with that arrangement so women went back to the job force and were competent.

4.  As family incomes increased, businesses raised prices because people could afford it and suddenly there were lots of things people had to spend money for including day care because no one was watching the kids.

5.  Suddenly it becomes necessary to have two people working and there isn't a way out of having women in the work force and trying to raise families at the same time.

6.  Everyone is working hard, long hours and still having trouble making ends meet.

7.  People become sleep deprived, children become neglected, people are irritable, divorce rises, tempers flair.

8.  Discontented tired people become insane and begin reacting violently to their tiredness, loneliness, frustration with money problems because they see on television that they would be a lot happier if they could just get "such and such"...everybody has "such and such" but YOU and the reason you're not happy is you don't have what everyone else has and that's because you aren't working hard enough.  

9.  Finally, after corporations sell everyone their dreams in shopping malls and people are frustrated with feeling like they never have enough no matter what they do...families fall apart and the anger and violence insues.  

I agree that people are naturally violent but it is exacerbated when people are tired, lonely (divorce rates..remember?) and frustrated.  Crime runs rampant when people are over worked, worried and stressed about money and relationships (and lets not leave out health care problems).

Crime is a real measure as to how the country is doing both economically and psychologically.  I think I read that 10% of all Americans are serving time in prison.  Never in the history of our nation has there been that many.  Our education system is getting worse and worse and our prison system is getting better and better.  

Technology is part of the problem not because it creates better killing machines but because technology is a hugh industry and creates more jobs, more over time, more tired sleep deprived people, less family time, etc, etc. resulting  in a crime problem.  We simply aren't a very happy people here in the states inspite of all our hard work and profit making schemes. There's trouble in River City but the problem really isn't the pool table!!!

Answer 4

Since the beginning of time man's basic instinct is to kill. The weapon of choice just depend on the age we live in. A stick was the first weapon, so who had the biggest stick won. If you believe in god no weapon form against you can harm you. I would say there's less violence now then in most centuries of the past.

Answer 5

The easier the access to weapons, the more they will be used.  And for those who want the concealed carry laws everywhere:  Show where that stopped someone from shooting others.