in Life/Philosophy — by Robert J Burrowes — January 28, 2020
As we approach the 72nd anniversary
of the assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi on 30 January 1948, it is worth
reflecting on one simple fact that he did not realize. His efforts to teach
humanity that conflict, including violent conflict, could be resolved without
violence were based on one fundamentally flawed assumption: that at least some
humans were interested in, and committed to, seeking out and using nonviolent
strategies for dealing with conflict in each and every context.
Unfortunately, as his own
experience taught him and he showed clear signs of realizing towards the end of
his life, the fundamental truth is that humans love violence and it is this
love of violence that will ensure the extinction of Homo sapiens in the near
term absent a profound response that shows no sign of emerging yet. See ‘Human Extinction Now Imminent and
Inevitable? A Report on the State of Planet Earth’.
This love of violence,
reinforced by the enormous fear associated with resisting it, is generated by
the violent parenting and education models that we have long been using and
which inflict enormous ‘visible’, ‘invisible’ and ‘utterly invisible’ violence
on all young people throughout their childhood and adolescence in the name of
‘socialization’. See ‘Why Violence?’, ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful
Psychology: Principles and Practice’and ‘Do We Want School or Education?’
These violently
dysfunctional parenting and education models ensure that virtually every child
emerges into adulthood as an unconsciously terrified, self-hating and powerless
individual. This individual has been terrorized into surrendering their unique
Self and accepting the ‘socially constructed delusional identity’ they have
been given to participate in society as a submissive student, worker/soldier
and citizen. ‘Powerful’ is not a word that can be used to describe the typical
human being.
This ‘individual’, among a
vast range of other violent and dysfunctional behaviors, chronically
over-consumes (as they have been taught to do) to compensate for their
inability to feel their deeply suppressed feelings including their fear,
(emotional) pain, anger, sadness, love and joy. Unfortunately, of course, this
over-consumption cannot make someone psychologically whole and that is why
virtually all humans who are in the circumstances to do so, chronically
over-consume and chronically accumulate in an endless but futile attempt to
satisfy deep but unmet emotional needs. See ‘Love Denied: The Psychology of
Materialism, Violence and War’.
