Why is the United States so Violent.docx (original) (raw)
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The Story of Violence in America
Daedalus, 2022
American history is characterized by its exceptional levels of violence. It was founded by colonial occupation and sustained by an economy of enslaved people who were emancipated by a Civil War with casualties rivaling any conflict of nineteenth-century Western Europe. Collective violence continued against African Americans following Reconstruction, and high levels of lethal violence emerged in American cities in the twentieth-century postwar period. What explains America's violent exceptionalism? How has structural violence against African Americans become ingrained in American culture and society? How has it been codified by law, or supported politically? Can we rectify and heal from our violent past?
Violence: An Enduring Manifestation of American Culture
Introduction. In the aftermath of one of the more recent mass killings, this time at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, government officials and their affiliates clung to politicized narratives encouraged by their identity groups. On the political right (republicans), it's a question of addressing the growing mental health issue in American society, and at the same time, preserving the "right to bear arms" as protected within the sanctity of the United States Constitution. For the political left (democrats), the issue is grounded in gun control legislation, or a lack there of. In both cases, the tendency is to look outside of self to find the answers to these violent actions. In the process, lawmakers are dividing the country into Outsiders and Insiders, holding the other side responsible for the growing breakdown in social capital and cohesion. As I have come to learn after working in the United States government for nearly 33-years, living and traveling most of my life overseas, and conducting doctoral-level research with Theravada Buddhist monks in post-genocide Cambodia, a minimalist approach to conflict analysis and resolution yield little positive outcomes. Similarly, the Liberal Peace Paradigm with the emphasis placed on structural change through free market economies, the rule of law, and democratic institutions has been generally unable to advance morality and a sense of nonviolence in American culture.
VALUES AND HABITS THAT MAINTAIN A VIOLENT SYSTEM
Topics in this chapter includes: Selling the Image of Being for the People Electoral Games The Public's Role in Protecting Centralized Power Interests Served by the Dominant Paradigm American Greatness and Exceptionalism
Here is my contribution to a most pleasant venue: a Caltech-Huntington Humanities Collaborations Workshop, organized by Warren Brown and Leah Klement in fall 2017 at Caltech, titled Defining Violence: Texts and Methodologies. Consistently with the long-standing interest in the subject, especially as developed by Warren, this event problematized violence as a phenomenon, from the multiple perspectives of our research. The subject has long been contested, and here is a tiny version of my response to that contestation. Toward that end, I used here, in abbreviated form, material from the Henryków Book. This text, too, is not a candidate for publication, because its substantive parts will work best as source material I plan to use for my forthcoming book on law and conflict; and because I have already used the same material for related but different purposes, in the article, "Violence and the Social Order" (placed on this website in full), and in my most recent book, placed here in small part. Nevertheless, I am happy to communicate here my thoughts elicited by that exceptionally useful and enlightening gathering.
In this compelling and timely book, Larry Ray offers a wide-ranging and integrated account of the many manifestations of violence in society. He examines violent behaviour and its meanings in contemporary culture and throughout history. Introducing the major theoretical debates, the book examines different levels of violence - interpersonal, institutional and collective - and different forms of violence - such as racist crime, homophobic crime and genocide. It provides readers with a succinct and comprehensive overview of its nature and effects, and the solutions and conflict resolutions involved in responses to violence. Interdisciplinary in its approach, the text draws on evidence from sociology, criminology, primate studies and archaeology to shed light on arguments about the social construction and innate nature of violence. Engaging, wide-reaching and authorative, this is essential reading for students, academics and researchers in sociology, criminology, social pyschology and cultural studies.