Violence

Yesterday’s so-called news centered on Trump’s criticism of Biden’s wearing a mask to an outdoor Veteran Memorial on Memorial Day. Biden responded to Trump’s lack of respect toward others and to his failure of leadership during the pandemic. One young man was at the beach and not wearing a mask. He was asked why he wasn’t wearing a mask. He replied something to the effect that the president wasn’t wearing one so he was not going to wear one. This politicizing wearing a mask got me thinking about the nature of man. Today’s essay addresses man’s nature.

The question Is Man- Wolf or Sheep was the title of chapter 1 in Erich Fromm’s “The Heart of Man.” Briefly, Fromm described man, on one hand, as being easily influenced; told what to do even if it’s harmful to himself; being highly suggestible like half-awake children; willing to surrender his will or soul to anyone who speaks with a voice that is threatening or sweet enough to sway him like  a sheep.  On the other hand, Fromm described man as  great inquisitors; as dictators with a history written in blood and violence like the extermination of  6 million  Jews ; had thousands of men who killed for them, tortured for them and did so not only willingly but with pleasure. He added that these facts led thinkers like Hobbs to the conclusion that man has a questionable worth to his fellow man, and have led many to the position that man’s nature is vicious and destructive. Fromm’s thesis pertains to the nature versus nurture argument. That philosophical discussion has been discussed for centuries.

Freud postulated that the life, aggressive and death instincts are biological in nature. For him, aggression, evil and violence were part of man’s biology and thus a significant part of his story.  Henry A. Murray, in his theory, identified a number of motivating forces in man and listed aggression as one of man’s needs. Others like Fromm, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, commonly called the neo-Freudians, placed greater emphasis on the environment for the expression of aggression. Thus, who has it right regarding man’s nature? This essay presents a few ideas pertaining to man’s aggressiveness.

In looking at children, a few comments. Infants are born weak, dependent, anxious and requiring nurturance. The only way they can meet their physiological, survival and competitive requirements are from a nurturing caretaker. The caretaker provides milk or water through a nipple and other comforts. If breast-feeding, it doesn’t take long for some mothers to discontinue breast-feeding because of sore nipples caused by an aggressive infant. The emphasis is on aggression and competitive “fighting” for food and/or survival. Not being hungry is paramount and related to survival. Later on, one witnesses “aggression” in the grabbing a toy or toys and not wanting to share with another.  Other examples of aggression center around what mine is mine and yours is mine. Empathy and sharing with another takes time to develop, if it does develop. Aggression, control, competition and survival are related.

Looking at anthropological data, the Arapesh have been used as an example in support of aggression being caused by the environment. These people from New Guinea are mild, friendly, and not aggressive. However comparing the Chukchi and the Dobu people the opposite conclusion can be made as these peoples are hostile and aggressive interpersonally. In any research, the randomness of the sample drawn of the population is important for conclusions. Since these groups are not randomly selected, the only scientific conclusion that can be made is that one group is not aggressive while the other group is aggressive. One should not generalize beyond those observations.

Looking at animal data, as a comparison to man, we find the following. The lion, is seen as being aggressive in killing a specific and hunted animal for food. We also see the dominant male lion, fighting another male lion for dominance and control of the pride. We do not see evidence of the lion killing for the sake of killing. The mother lion protects her cubs and teaches them to be independent. She will fight off other animal intruders. We also see aggression during the eating of the kill. Chimpanzees, gorillas and apes also seem cooperative and non-aggressive except when one is threatened and/or challenged.

Let’s take a look at male physiology. Testosterone is the male sex hormone although women have testosterone levels of 1/10 to 1/ 12 to men.  Some of the effects of testosterone are: 1. Promotes libido, aggressiveness and sexual desire 2. Stimulates the growth of certain organs 3.  Promotes protein anabolism that is the use of protein to build muscle, skin and bone and militates against protein catabolism or breakdown. 4. Stimulates sperm production. Moreover, the effects of testosterone are more pronounced during puberty and bring increased muscle mass, enlarged larynx, thicker vocal cords and other characteristics. Testosterone production varies and is affected by a number of external factors. HGH is a growth hormone that affects one’s energy level and sense of well-being. It also decreases during aging. DHEA has been called the mother of all hormones because the body uses it to produce the male and female sex hormones testosterone, estrogen and progesterone as well as using it to make cortisone. This is also age-related. In essence, man’s wiring allows him to fight, flee or freeze when put in a threatening position. Man’s physiology equips him to handle his survival.

Man also has an emotional or an affect side to his being. Affect is a feeling attached to an idea or a set of idea complexes. Man is characterized by his feelings, although fleeting, and related to behavior like anger. Anger has often been associated with frustration .Frustration is easily experienced and may or may not lead to physical aggression but often to verbal aggression.

Let’s take a look briefly at the history of man. In the Old Testament, man was expelled from paradise. He had his own history, developed his human powers, and hopefully obtained a new harmony with both man and nature. The Messianic prophets believed that man was not fundamentally corrupt and that he could be saved without any special act of God’s grace. But this does not suggest that man’s potential for good will necessarily win out. If man does evil, he becomes more evil. The Pharaoh’s heart hardened because he kept on doing evil to the Hebrew slaves. The Old Testament’s view was that man has capacities for both good and for evil.  Man must choose between good and evil, blessing and curse, and life and death.

Turning to the Roman Coliseum, there was sport between slaves and animals. It was a fight to the death and the crowd roared in delight when the Emperor’s thumb pointed towards the earth to witness blood flow and death. The Crusades sent eager followers of Christ against eager followers of Mohammed to their deaths. A lot of blood in the sand. The various Kings easily raised armies, paid mercenary zealots and fought over sand. The kings had no trouble gathering followers. In 1492, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand expelled and tortured Jews of Spain that did not convert to Catholicism. In the 1930s and 1940s, Hitler and his eagerly led followers killed 6 million Jews. In 2001, we officially went to war with the Muslims and are still on their turf. When it comes to evil, killing, destruction, exploitation and death, we are in the forefront with lots of passionate volunteers for that fact.

Let’s take a look at a few forms of violence. 1. Playful violence can be characterized as displaying a skill but not in the pursuit of destruction, hate or death. The Zen Buddhist employed sword fighting as an art. 2. Football has violence and is called a sport with referees. One team prepares battle against his opponent. In fact, Coach Bo Schembechler talked about generals and admirals in preparing for an upcoming game. Camaraderie, social narcissism and battling as a team were paramount. Although one was not told to kill their opponent, the warriors were encouraged to dominate, beat, smash, control and run over the opposition. Essentially, most players leave the NFL game because of physical injuries suffered and do not qualify for a pension. Some NFL players with excessive brain-damage, become homeless and have committed the aggressive act of suicide.

Let’s take a psychological look at some of the factors of aggression. In reactive aggression we see a defense for life, freedom, dignity, property of one’s own or one’s others.  Reactive aggression is rooted in fear. Unfortunately, that fear can be real, imagined, as in the case of George Floyd’s killer, and at the conscious or unconscious level. It’s often for the preservation of life but not in this case.

 Unfortunately, authoritarian and other leaders create the idea of the country or nation being threatened by an intruder. That manipulation of man’s mind easily arouses a reactive response of hostility. It’s been relatively simple and not difficult to persuade the masses of a threat. Hitler did that with his SS armed attack. He blamed Polish soldiers for attacking his Silesian radio station. Invading Iraq using the phony “weapons of mass destruction” story enthusiastically allowed the US to invade Iraq.

Frustration of one’s needs, anger, desires, envy and jealousy are also factors of aggression. The story of Cain who killed his beloved brother Abel is an example. Revengeful violence deals with confronting an injury or death that has already happened with an irrational undoing magically of what has already been done. It’s a futile attempt to restore one’s damaged self-esteem. Movies, TV and novels are full of stories about somebody revenging something. It’s very common to feel slighted or attacked by another. It’s the response that varies. An eye for an eye is an example of revenge. Django, played by Jamie Foxx is a good example.

One can start life believing in a number of illusions such as goodness, fidelity, love, justice, democracy, fairness etc. Our government is not a democracy and that is not an illusion. At some point, and it varies with individuals, beliefs are challenged and then questioned. The hypocrisy from a parent, teacher, religious or political leader becomes evident. Sometimes that despair can be overcome by a frantic pursue of power, possessions and/or prestige. These compensatory pursuits can become damaging, disappointing and not fulfilling nor resulting in happiness and well-being. With anger, disappointments, weakness, insecurity, and cynicism, one can even look for compensation by identifying with the person, group, of power.   A narcissistic leader, and the social groups that follow provide many examples of violence toward another. Trump and the White Nationalists are examples.

One psychological illustration of man’s character lies in those who have a sadistic and narcissistic character orientation. This is an individual that has a drive for complete and absolute control over a living being, animal, or man. To have complete mastery over another, to make him feel helpless, to be the object of our will, to become his God, to do with him as one pleases are an example of a slave owner. Our country was founded by the Virginia slave holders- Madison, Jefferson, Washington. The economy was based on white ownership exploiting cruelty over the slaves which were property. There are numerous examples of the inhumanity and cruelty during that time.

 Recently, a white officer in Minneapolis, had his knee on a handcuffed black man’s neck while telling him to get up.  Not much has changed in the last 400 years for the white power structure. It was okay then and it’s okay now to discriminate, exploit and sadistically kill a black man. In fact, neither Trump, Barr nor the other Republican congressional cronies had much to say regarding George Floyd or have been outraged by brutal police force.  This sadistic murder by these policemen continue to symbolize the message of white dominance, exploitation and killing of the black man. Slavery continues to exist. So now we witness protest and mob violence all over the country by those without wealth and political power.

Another example of violence and aggression has to do with “blood thirst.” This is an example of an individual with his passion for killing, or shedding blood as in necrophilia in order to feel alive and special. Murder is obviously a mental sickness and we have numerous examples of gun deaths. Interestingly, we’ve not had any mass shootings in peaceful and vulnerable locations like a school, place of worship or music event during the Covid 19 epidemic.

A psychiatric glossary defines aggression “a forceful physical, verbal or symbolic action. May be appropriate and self-protective, including healthful self-assertiveness or inappropriate. Another definition of aggression has been called passive aggressiveness. This is defined as “aggressive behavior manifested in passive ways such as obstructionism, pouting, procrastination, intentional inefficiency, or stubbornness.” In other words, passive aggressiveness can be physical as well as verbally expressed. Go to social media or follow Trumps tweets for illustrations of passive aggressiveness as it’s axiomatic.

Last week’s essay provided an impetus for this essay on violence, and aggression in man’s nature. For a more in-depth explanation, with scholarly detailed references, and a different take, consult: Erich Fromm’s “The Heart of Man its Genius for Good and Evil.” With that being said, I realize that I have left out additional data with its many examples of man’s exploitiveness and hostility toward others. It’s true, that we have weapons to destroy ourselves on this planet; we have a climate crisis that’s destroying our planet; and we have Covid 19 with one message being the importance of the health and safety of us all and the other message about opening up the economy. For the second group it’s about not wearing masks; it’s not keeping at least 6 feet apart; with its gun tooting and Confederacy flags bearing demonstrators. This group’s model has a passive aggressive president and twitter King. Is it revenge, threat, frustration, political or just man being man? We are also proficient in destroying wild and sea life while polluting the rivers, streams and oceans.

Biologically, man is armed and wired with aggressive hormones. He is prepared and ready, all the time, to fight, flee, or freeze. That’s his nature. Furthermore, he is born dependent, anxious, helpless, and vulnerable and angers easily. Psychologically he has to overcome his initial weakness in order to survive. He has to deal with all the frustrations and anger resulting from interactions with parents, school, relationships, world of work, government and all the other societal components. It’s no wonder that man, with his endowments and history, gets angry, is depressed and suicidal {aggression turned inward}. How can he not be aggressive, if he wants to survive?  Yes, aggression or assertiveness can be positive. However, man is frequently and easily angered, easily mislead like a sheep and has no difficulty being destructive, hostile and evil toward others like a wolf. In essence, man exhibits behavior both like a sheep and a wolf and expresses the degree of these characteristics depending upon character and circumstances. Thank goodness man has the tools to also be creative, intelligent, scientific, loving and rational with others.

PS

Man by nature is aggressive which prepares him from the experiences of imitating, modeling, reinforcing, knowing history, government policies, economic philosophy and society’s craziness resulting in anger and aggression. Man’s trend toward hate, destruction and violence is scary.