Violence: what can we do about it?

[Anna B 1,414]

I saw a piece on facebook by the Dalai Lama. He said it was no good praying for peace; violence is a man made problem, so the solution has to be man made too, and is up to everyone of us.

 

I agree, but what to do about it?

 

I am a peaceful, non-violent person who wishes no one harm, and I suspect most ordinary people are the same, so why is the world such a violent place?

 

The politicians don't seem to be having much success, and I reckon may be part of the problem.

 

So, what can we, as individuals, do about it? Especially at an international level?

[melthebell 863]

sadly man is a violent species, we're also stuffed to the gills with greed, hate, power mongering

[Anna B 1,414]

sadly man is a violent species, we're also stuffed to the gills with greed, hate, power mongering

 

But I'm not, and I doubt you are either. Nor most people. That's my point. We just want to quietly get on with our lives. So who is? Who is causing all the world's agro?

[mossdog 10]

sadly man is a violent species, we're also stuffed to the gills with greed, hate, power mongering

.........and the man who tried to do something about it got nailed to a plank of wood!

[melthebell 863]

.........and the man who tried to do something about it got nailed to a plank of wood!

Noah?

 

oh no wait, he made an ark out of his plank of wood?

[Anna B 1,414]

.........and the man who tried to do something about it got nailed to a plank of wood!

 

But his message lives on 2,000 years later. Maybe all we have to do is listen.

[Cyclone 10]

A religion that a majority of people worldwide don't believe in, is hardly going to be the solution to a planet wide problem of violence.

[Mister M 1,625]

I don;t have any answers Anna. However I read a synopsis by the scientist and linguist Prof Steven Pinker who suggests, both the long and short term, violence is on the decline.

I've not read his book as yet, but it is on my reading list for 2018.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0141034645

 

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228340-100-steven-pinker-humans-are-less-violent-than-ever/

[Anna B 1,414]

A religion that a majority of people worldwide don't believe in, is hardly going to be the solution to a planet wide problem of violence.

 

Do you have to follow a religion to be able to understand its primary message?

 

I'm not Buddhist, but I think the Dalai Lama speaks a lot of sense.

[Robin-H 11]

But his message lives on 2,000 years later. Maybe all we have to do is listen.

 

If fewer people believed in religion I tend to think the world would be less violent.

[backwardben 11]

a good birching, Birching is a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks, although occasionally to the back and/or shoulders

[barleycorn 10]

If fewer people believed in religion I tend to think the world would be less violent.

 

I doubt it. Violence over religion just breaks down to an us and them mentality. If it wasn't religion it would be something else. I blame evolution.