Violence Against Humans

Today is the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre. In 1989, a man killed 14 women at Ecole Polytechnique. He blamed women for many of his problems in life, including the fact that he had not been accepted into engineering. In our grief about the event, Canadians reacted against violence upon women in general.

December 6^th is all the anniversary of the Halifax Explosion, in 1917. It was the biggest explosion ever, until the arrival of the atomic bomb. The incident was caused by two ships colliding in the Halifax Harbour. Around two thousand people died, and nine thousand were injured or maimed. Much of the city, especially the North End was destroyed. While it was an accident, it can be considered an indirect result of WWI. Canada was spared the horror of the world wars, but this one event gave us a taste of the desolation of the war.

Today seems like an appropriate day to think about violence. Acts committed by individuals and acts carried out by militaries on the behalf of states are all devastating. In Halifax we are making efforts to educate students about abuse in relationships, as well as bullying and other forms of violence. On the global front there are often peace talks. Canada is a big defender of civil rights, and we have been famous for our peacekeeping efforts abroad. These sorts of strategies are good, but I think that they will not eradicate the problem.

We say that violence is wrong, but we don’t really believe it. Violence is actually valued in our popular culture. Last night I watched eight movie previews. Of the eight, five were overtly violent. One of those was a children’s movie, but it had a lot of slapstick slapping, hitting and crashing. Of the non-violent movies, Bobby ends with an assassination. Two of the violent movies were serial-killer stories. These movies are made because people will pay to see them. To some degree violence is equated with power. Brute force is a more tangible form of power to our society than intelligence or respect through social connections.

The value we place on violence is evident in our entertainment media, and perhaps we would find it evident in our language and behavioural patterns too, if we took the time to examine it. What messages are we exchanging? What messages are we sending to the next generation? If we want to stop abuse in our homes and neighbourhoods; if we want the nations of the world to stop fighting, then we have to change the way we view violence in small everyday ways.