Violence Caused By Morality

[beso]

"WHY would anyone hurt you? Why would you hurt or kill someone else? Contrary to popular perception, people are rarely violent simply because they lose control and fail to think about right and wrong. They rarely commit violence because they lack empathy and fail to see their victims as fully human. And almost no one is violent because they draw sadistic pleasure from the suffering of others.

"Across cultures and history, there is generally one motive for hurting or killing: people are violent because it feels like the right thing to do. They feel morally obliged to do it.

"Loss of control, lack of empathy, dehumanisation, self-interest: these are factors that help facilitate violence, but none of them account for the motives underlying most acts of violence. When people impulsively lash out, on the whole they don't simply lash out randomly."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429973.000-most-violence-arises-from-morality-not-the-lack-of-it.html

I am not a subscriber so I can't read the whole story but you get the idea.

What do you think?

[Svejk]

Sounds a bit 'highfalutin' to me. Everyone has a propensity for violence, imo. Most keep it suppressed.

[woofgang]

Hmmm. well its a pov and I can see the argument when its one nation going to war with another. But drunken brawls on a saturday night? nah....

[ummmm]

Some people have short tempers, some are just violent bullies.

[TWR]

With respect Beso, does this also include Youngster at play schools?

[Buenchico]

Morality is often used as an excuse for violence, as when people in prison beat up a fellow inmate when they find out that he's a child molester (claiming that they're expressing their moral outrage). However research has shown that, in the absence of such 'obvious' targets, the people who instigate that violence simply find other vulnerable inmates to bully anyway.

[Old_Geezer]

To continue reading this article, subscribe ...
Yeah got me too, but reminded me I've not read the 29Nov issue I bought yet !

I think it may be different for individual acts of violence and group/tribal acts against those outside the group. It could help explain culture and religion related violence though.

[ludwig]

I've only read your quoted paragraphs, but if that's the article in a nutshell, I disagree with it. - ie

// Contrary to popular perception, people are rarely violent simply because they lose control and fail to think about right and wrong. // - disagree

// They rarely commit violence because they lack empathy and fail to see their victims as fully human. // - disagree

// almost no one is violent because they draw sadistic pleasure from the suffering of others. // - disagree

// Loss of control, lack of empathy, dehumanisation, self-interest: these are factors that help facilitate violence, but none of them account for the motives underlying most acts of violence // - Disagree. This is the wrong way around. These are the underlying motives. The higher level moral considerations are the facilitating factors.

[beso]

On the whole I tend to agree with Ludwig, //The higher level moral considerations are the facilitating factors.//

A sense of moral outrage is how we avoid a sense of guilt.

[ummmm]

There are different types of violence.

Getting into a scrap in a pub is completely different to battering your wife for burning the dinner.

[TWR]

Just to add Beso, someone had taken something away from me that I loved doing by telling lies, for a while & even now I could gladly belt the evil person, she was a female.

[ummmm]

What stopped you, TWR?

[beso]

TWR // does this also include Youngster at play schools?//

A sense of fairness is quite well developed in most preschoolers. It is inate part of being a successful social animal, as humans are. We get disgusted when we get a bad deal compared to others.

Reaction against unfairness is an essential element of morality but it has been overloaded by the arbitrary assignment of the same sense of disgust towards a range of other issues.

[TWR]

Persons about within the Circle of my friends including managers, know this witch, she even went to a so called Tricky Vicky's on the LD person's Money, bragged about it on F.B. & got away with it Ummmm.

[TWR]

9.00 Reply To Ummmm

[ummmm]

You said you could gladly belt this person. What stopped you doing that?

[TWR]

Read my reply

[TWR]

That she explain why.

[TWR]

Should

[Baldric]

So you didn't belt her because [i]she even went to a so called Tricky Vicky's on the LD person's Money, bragged about it on F.B. & got away with it,[i]
How does that work then?

[ummmm]

You've lost me, TWR...!

You said you'd gladly belt them, but you didn't, was that because of your morals?