Violence Natural?
by Peter Davison
Published in the Daily News, October 1993
To the Editor,
Your columnist Peter March's claims that, "fighting and killing are a perfectly
natural things for young men to do" (October 7, 1993) is a dangerous denial of
serious solutions to social problems that cannot go unchallenged. Reducing the
complex webs of human interactions and human institutions to be subject solely
to biological law is a mockery of our ability to control our lives and our
future.
This same narrow thinking would have us believe that famine is caused by
"lack of food" or war is caused by the "stresses of overcrowding". Indeed, to
extend this theory to its logical conclusion, as Hitler did, then Arayan's could be
the "superior race".
For Mr. March to seriously explore biological law on the pages of your
paper and propose that young aggressive males be dealt with by using hormonal
therapy is offensive.
Teachers like myself, parents or anyone else working with today's youth to
teach them about healthy relationships are acutely aware of the intense barrage
of violent images and role models generated in our society under the guise of
profit or entertainment.
We learn to use violence like we learn sexism or racism. Attitudes are not
natural nor genetically determined. Unfortunately, as long as Mr. March's
shallow analysis obscures real dialogue on the issue we will not learn to look at
the real causes and solutions to societies failure to promote peace or safety.
