Written Analysis IV

Written Analysis IV: Formulas of Violence

                Violence can take place in many different forms, and in a very wide range of contexts.  Typically when one thinks of violence they usually think of one person shooting or stabbing another.  While this is certainly one formula of violence, there are many, many other forms that take place in our world every day.  Gun violence, as it is termed by left wing politicos, is simply violence that involves a gun - an inanimate object used in a way to cause harm to another much like a knife, rope, lead pipe, or candlestick could be.  I will bucket all of these into a single category of physical violence, which can be broken up into categories based on their cause. 

To peel the onion further, not only can violence be categorized by the methods used, but also the reasons that cause violence.  Most physical violence is caused by one simple thing: power.  Consider the first examples of physical violence that come to mind: War, which is caused by a desire for political power, Gang violence, which is caused by drugs or money, both a source of power, or domestic violence, caused by one person in the household wanting to have power over another.  Along the lines of physical violence is mental violence, which can be very much interconnected.  Torture is just as much mental as it is physical.  Likewise, domestic violence is often used to subdue the weaker into submitting to you both physically as well as mentally.  Even gang violence is mental, telling a rival gang they are not strong enough, or have enough influence, to overpower your gang.  Violence can also be sexual in nature.  Anyone that has seen Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is acutely aware of the wide array of sexual violence that depraved individuals can commit. 

While violence is often done from one person or group of people to another, it can also be self inflicted.  Self-mutilation or self punishment through violence is a rising issue in our culture, with burning, cutting, and other self-inflicted violence on a steep incline in recent years.  Suicide is perhaps the ultimate demonstration of self-inflicted violence; the murder of one’s self is certainly an act of violence that goes unrivaled by any other form of self destruction.

In conclusion, violence can take countless forms, so sayin there is a particular formula or formulae for violence is a bit of an impossible task.  Violence is as wide spread, and as varying from type to type as the human race is.  Violence will continue to evolve as our culture does, and surely even more new forms will surface in the coming years as people find new ways of committing violent acts on one another.