The Nature of Violence

Today something somewhat troubling happened while interacting with my three year-old nephew.  He saw a bug...and wanted to kill it.  Now, why would this seemingly ordinary event seem troubling?  After all, doesn't this same kind of event happen in untold thousands of households on a daily basis?  Well here is why it's so troubling, the reason he gave for his actions was "I don't like it, Uncle Sid."  So here I am presented with the forceful will of a three-year old (if you have never interacted with a three-year old forceful is indeed the proper word) and I was at my wits end trying to explain in terms a three-year old might understand why perhaps it might be wrong to destroy another living creature just because you simply "do not like it."

The troubling implication of this fact is that a three-year old has already decided that violence is the solution to removing things he or she does not like.  Somehow my nephew has learned that violence is an acceptable way to deal with his problems.  Now perhaps he fails to recognize that the bug is another living creature and there are implications of its own existence, but I would imagine that in the mind of a three-year old where monsters become real that he understands it is a living creature.  Therefore, this inexorably leads me to one of two possible conclusions - either he has already picked up from our culture that violence is an acceptable means for carrying out ones own will or that until properly educated people naturally turn towards violence to get execute their own desires.

Now, being a proper student of Gandhi I naturally lean towards the former in lieu of the latter.  However, even making this assumption, it is a troubling thought to realize how ingrained in our culture violence must be for this to be the conclusion kids draw at such a young age.  Is this due to interactions between children and adults whereby adults use their physical advantage to control children (such as picking them up and moving them when they don't come willingly)?  Or is there some other cultural artifact going on, such as glimpses of violence in television (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a culprit in my youth) or seeing interactions with other children who come from families where violence is a more common punishment (spare the rod, spoil the child).

Finally I would ask if it begs the question should we be doing more as a society to move beyond our ancient roots whereby violence was an everyday part of our existence.  In some ways ancient struggle for survival was part of a cruel system whereby to survive required extraordinary action.  Forming a hunting party to kill animals with spears would naturally breed violence into any society.

Could I be looking too much into a simple action by a three-year old? Yes, most definitely.  But are there things that this three-year old can teach us about ourselves?  Yes, most definitely.  I will leave with this parting thought.  Gandhi once remarked that India should not obtain her independence through violence because then violence would be required to maintain that independence.  Although Gandhi was a construct of his own cultural time and circumstances, I can't help but wonder if the United States' obsession with violence somehow connected to our foundation in a violent struggle for independence.