Earlier in the semester, I attended a seminar about nonviolence that was held by Dr. Arun Gandhi. In his lecture, Gandhi made several critical points about nonviolence and how it can be achieved. However, what I found most impactful in his speech was what he felt caused so much violence to exist in this world in the first place. He claimed that more than 85% of violence is generated by anger, making anger one of the main causes of violence.
What might seem ironic is that Dr. Arun Gandhi didn’t view anger as a negative thing; in fact, he said it was nothing at all to be ashamed of. Anger is a natural, very powerful human emotion that we all experience several times within our lives. The problem with anger lies in the fact that if we misuse it, it can quickly become “deadly and destructive.” We as a society need to learn how to use anger effectively as a source of drive and motivation, rather than as an excuse for aggression.
What makes this seemingly simple objective so difficult to obtain is the way anger is portrayed within the media. Starting at a very young age, children are exposed to cartoons in which one character pummels another character out of anger. Children are exposed to video games in which a character’s main objective is to hunt down and kill another character out of anger. Children are exposed to movies in which the whole plot is centered on one character ruining another character’s life in search for revenge because he or she is angry. What message are children supposed to take out of said forms of media? How can we teach our children that hitting is not nice, but allow them to watch violent movies, shows, and play violent video games and still sit back expecting them not to behave violently? Why have we allowed this paradoxical behavior to persist for so long in our society when we can clearly see what it is doing to the world?
We know that anger drives violence in most cases, and therefore we should work as a society towards educating ourselves, others, and our children about healthier ways of dealing with our anger. We shouldn’t wait for an individual to act out in a fit of rage before we send them to therapy to learn more effective ways to deal with their anger. Anger management strategies should be something that everyone learns in their youth and continues to learn throughout their lifetime.
We need to teach children that violence should never be the first resort in a situation of conflict. Instead, people should employ more practical and useful strategies for conflict resolution, such as talking through issues and coming to some sort of compromise. It is crucial for children to understand that violence very rarely makes a situation better; it almost always makes it worse. Unfortunately, this reality is not often depicted through media outlets, so it’s incredibly important that parents have conversations with their children regarding misuse of anger prior to or following their exposure to movies, shows, or games that are particularly violent.
Protecting children from developing corrupted mindsets regarding anger and violence seems easy enough, but how can we combat the mindset regarding anger that is already instilled in so many adults? This is a difficult question to answer and if it had a definitive answer the world would likely already be on it’s way to nonviolence, but unfortunately it doesn’t. One thing that is certain, though, is that before any change can occur, awareness of the issue must first be raised. According to Dr. Arun Gandhi, it is a crime in itself to achieve nonviolence and simply keep your beliefs to yourself. People who are aware of the issue that violence is a largely inessential part of this world need to speak out when they see it happening. We should protest violence in the media in any way that we can. It will take some time and a huge amount of effort, but the issue is so substantial that bringing even a small amount of attention to it would go a long way. According to Gandhi, it all starts with you.
