The Killing Kind
Having recently, with the essential help of my lovely wife, brought a child into this World, I am beginning to think not so much about what the future will be like for me as the years unfold, but what the future will be like for my offspring.
I want my son to grow up to be smart, tough and strong. I know that I have made at least a few enemies in my life and while some may wish to kill me I would hope that most would simply smile to hear of my death, whether it be natural, of my own cause, or at the hands of another.
While I did not pick fights or bully people when I was a boy, when engaged I would fight back ferociously. And if someone picked a fight with me and I got the best of him, I made sure I got the best of him even after he could no longer fight back, as a deterrence to him or whoever else might choose to pick a fight with me. On the down side I have also been savagely beaten a couple of times and hospitalized for surgery as a result.
I do not want to bring my child up to be a violent person, but the fact is this World is a violent place, and so I must choose to bring my child up to deal with this violent World. I would rather he be the victor than a victim.
Today’s politically correct thinking is that violence is a learned behavior, that it is not intrinsic to human nature. The fact is there are plenty of healthy, reasonable people who will hurt others, destroy or steal property because it serves that individual’s interests. “Killing one’s adversary is the ultimate conflict resolution technique.” (Daly & Wilson, 1988)
While I believe that violence on a World-wide scale is declining and will continue to decline for centuries, there will never be an end to people murdering other people.
Men are more violent than women, but men and women differ not only biologically, but also in their social roles. The “culture of masculinity” is not to blame for violence.
People were more violent in the centuries before television was invented than they are today. And violent crime rates plummeted in the 1990s when violent computer games came onto the market. Violence in the media is not the cause of violence.
And it is not the prevalence of weapons that causes more crime and violence. Both the Israelis and the Swiss are armed to the teeth and they both have exceptionally low rates of violence. I’m not saying that more guns equals less violence, but I am certainly not saying the opposite of that either.
Today’s passive Swedes are the descendants of the blood-thirsty Vikings. The collapse of colonialism in Africa has made that dark continent even darker where we cannot even count the deaths there. Africa today is much like feudal Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Any ethnic group that has survived to this day has done so because they were the more savage of all their neighbors.
Yet today many people live out their adult lives never hitting the “violence on” button.
Another thing I’m tired of hearing is the humans are the only species that murder each other. This is so far from the truth it is barely worth mentioning except to let those who think it may be true know that it is not. A dog killed another dog in my neighborhood just the other week. Lions kill lions, walruses kill walruses, chimpanzees kill chimpanzees.
Violence is not simply human nature, it is animal nature. Those that are alive today descend from the most successful violent ancestors.
The most violent age for humans is just after the age of two, where studies have shown that almost half of all boys and girls engage in hitting, biting and kicking. (Yet these same children learn to forgive each other so quickly. One moment they want to kill each other and a few minutes later, having settled whatever dispute there was between them they go back to playing as if nothing ever happened. Adults have a dispute like that and they take it to the grave with them, or put someone in the grave. Why can’t we all just get along? What happened to our childhood ability to forgive?)
More than 80% of women and 90% men fantasize about killing people they do not like, such as romantic rivals, step parents, or people who have humiliated them. (Buss & Duntley, 1994). People like to think about killing other people. Just turn on the TV or rent the latest movie, there is some gruesome stuff out there.
Violence may be a social problem, but it is not one that can be fixed by society. Violence may be a political problem, but no politician will fix it either. Violence is a biological problem, it is in our genes, and if somehow that gene for violence could be removed we would cease to be humans, so I don’t see any solution coming from biologists either.
I don’t think violence is a moral issue either, not on a social scale. The biblical commandment, Thou Shalt Not Kill, meant a Jew should not kill another Jew. Gentiles were acceptable for killing. The bible is not the place to get one’s morals about violence.
Violence may at times be moral. If some terrorist was about to blow up a building with hundreds of people in it, torturing him or killing him to prevent it would be the correct thing to do. If some man snatched my infant son from my wife’s arms and was about to throw the baby in some cooking pot for his dinner, I would wholly applaud my wife for splitting the mans skull in half with a rock.
I would like my child to grow up to be competitive, to be willing to test his strength of will, mind and body against others. I hope that he will be kind and helpful to others. I hope that he will survive to reproduce, and that if the time comes that he kill or be killed that he will be the killing kind.