Violence in our Society

I visited Ringer Park for the first time yesterday. I had intended to write a glowing piece about the park and showcase my photography, but then I read this article in the Boston Globe. I did not realize that Ringer Park was the site of Kanagala Seshadri Rao’s murder. Reading about it again tainted my visit to the park.

In April, this tragedy really affected me as a Boston University student. It upsets me that a community resource like Ringer Park could be marred by crime. Ringer Park is beautiful. I very much enjoyed my visit, and I am happy with the pictures I took. Moreover, residents volunteer their time and energy to maintain the park. Crime should not prevent community members from enjoying the community resources they support.

While discussing the Boston Globe article, I learned about a more recent act of violence across the country. Everyone seems to be discussing the horrific shooting in Aurora. It certainly deserves discussion. The act ended the lives of a dozen young people, and injured dozens more. Tragedies like this should not happen. The fact that they do with such frequency is a sign that there is something wrong with our society.

I have thought a great deal about violence in the last few days. I have wondered about the source of violence in our society, and what we can do to reduce it. Violence is very difficult to unravel and analyze: violence is an incredibly complicated phenomenon which seems to manifest in every aspect of human interaction. However, I do have a few thoughts.

The institutions that shape our society fail to meet the basic human needs of our population. Our economic institutions leave many in abject poverty. Our social institutions leave people isolated and unhappy. Our healthcare system leaves people chronically ill. Our educational system leaves people ignorant and unskilled. Whichever human need you consider, there are millions of people in this country who suffer from neglect.

Faced with consistent neglect, people turn to forceful means to fulfill their needs. Our ancestors evolved many strategies to fulfill their needs, and force is one of those strategies. Today, desperate people still resort to violence. This strategy is obvious when employed to meet economic needs: poor people sometimes resort to thievery or drug-pushing for an income. This strategy is less obvious in other contexts: bullies often abuse other students to gain confidence.

We have a culture that permits violence because we have institutions that frustrate efforts to end violence. Most people would agree in principal that murder, rape, and theft are bad; many would also recognize bullying, sexual coercion, and domestic abuse as wrong. However, our institutional design makes it difficult to act on these beliefs. The problem seems so overwhelmingly large, and our options so few and vague, that many conclude they cannot make a difference. Rather than admit that there are societal injustices in which they are complicit, these people learn to avoid or even justify acts of violence. Examples of this behavior are common. Domestic abuse is avoided on the grounds of privacy ("it's none of my business what they do in their home"). Rape is justified by criticizing survivors' clothes or behavior ("she was asking for it"). Bullying is justified as a normal part of youth ("boys will be boys").

I am not sure that I am completely right, but I felt I had to say something. For all the discussion the Aurora shooting inspired, I am afraid we will only get another pointless debate on gun control and mental illness. We have already had that debate so many times. I hope this time we can get a little closer to addressing the pervasive violence in our country. I really do not want to read about another mass shooting.