Violence in Human Nature (Essay)

Well, I was watching the news and saw yes another segment on violence in America. And, yet again, the people on the TV were trying to blame Movies and video games for the violent behavoir. So, I got to thinking about why people are violent and came up with a theory.

My thoery on why people are violent is because we are a violent race. What was that? You think Im wrong? Well, let me explain it a little better.

Throughout history people have needed violence. There isnt a time period where there was no violence in all of mankinds history. I think that humans have to watch violence, that its something embedded in us. Think about it. People have always had violence as entertainment. Kings and Queens for centuries have had people fight just to entertain them. The romans had the lions and gladiators to fight and entertain the people. Our history is practically written in blood, and not for the reasons we see such as power, kingdom expansion, ect, but because people enjoyed it.

Today most of us get our fill of violence through movies, music, books, video games, ect. Some of us just have a higher desire for violence and this is not the medias fault, or really anyones fault. I agree that murderers and the such deserve the death sentence because they should have never done what they did, but at the same time it is apart of human nature and they have a higher desire for the violence, which makes then a threat to society.

Now, before you go off telling me that you hate violence and that you would never have an urge to see violence happen, Im going to ask you, do you watch TV? If yes what type of things do you watch? Do you watch horror, thriller, action, suspense, adventure, science fiction, westerns, hell even comedy has some form of human suffering in it (friend who hits other friend in face accidentally)? Everyone has a desire, almost a need, for violence, but some peoples urges are smaller than others. A comedy where someone gets smacked accidentally may be enough for some people, others need to watch people getting sliced and diced in a horror. The point is that we all have the urge.

Now, the reason behind the desire is somewhat uncertain. I havnt really thought of a reason for it. Perhaps it is just because its the way we are, the way we are programmed. We are after all a destructive race.