Introduction
Violence refers to any behaviour that involves physical force with the intent to damage property, hurt an individual, or kill someone. On the other hand, language refers to the method by which humans communicate. Throughout history, violence has been used at the individual and group level to put across messages; the aggressors could range anywhere between local gang members to dangerous rebels looking to oust incumbent regimes in their country. This paper is going to give insights on how violence can be utilised as a language and a channel of communication.
Violence and Language; an Overview
Violence cannot be trivialized to simply be material force; it is the utilization of force for some human purpose i.e. within an individual or group context. Human beings are social actors and their entire beings are vulnerable to pain. On a global basis, each society exploits the probability that our acts can be managed by the fact, expectancy, and memory of pain that is caused by others. Parents hurt their children with strokes of the cane so as to instill discipline in them; at times the blows play the role of harsh words, but both of these inflict the same amount of pain. Schools of thought on child development make it very easy for people not to remember how parents cause pain to children and make them cry; how fundamental such manner of violence is to the socializing process at large. It is worth mentioning that theories of ideological and economic domination, in the same way, can make it difficult to understand the manner in which rich and powerful people exploit those that are poor and without power via violence and pain. Overall, violence and its use as a “language” has time and again exerted its social effects as much through things it connotes as through what it does.
Reasons Why People Resort to Violence
Perhaps the reason why human beings choose to resort to violence in society does so because normative social constructs let them down when it comes to offering proper channels for communication that is more constructive. The persistence of violence in the course of human history happens to be a very distressing feature of the changeover to civilization in the world. In as much as people from the dark ages usually relied on systemic and physical violence for their existence, sociologists expected that man could do much better in the 21st century with regards to seeking peace and according to each other freedom; they were wrong. Instead, the continuum of high amounts of both criminal and political violence, despite the fact that it is dissimilar in many respects from the manner of violence in the past, keep leaving practitioners and theorists speechless. In as much as elevated crime levels in reaction to political frustration and poverty at the snail pace of delivery of basic primary needs like health and education are to be anticipated, the violence level that is present in both these spheres is much more complicated to decipher and put into explanation.
Why Violence is not a Proper Communication Method
For most perpetrators of violence, what rings at the back of their mind is that their actions will help bring about the necessary pressure that will bend government or society’s unpleasant constructs. To them, the pressure they apply on society through violence is meant to make the society at large to cooperate, to conform to whatever they deem fit. At times, the grievances of those who look to use violence as a language are very legit; but humans owe it to themselves to show how civilization has made them reasonable.
Violence and proper negotiations are two extreme ends of a communication continuum. They are both purposed to pass across a message. Humans choose to involve themselves with physical violence whenever they have a feeling that alternative ways of communicating their concerns have been barred. So as to de-escalate or find a solution to a conflict, it is important that to assist two opposing sides to regard more considerately at the actions of their opponents so as to fathom the true connotation of violent acts, and to place them in proper perspective.
Real Life Situation
An example of situation where violence has been used as a language on a global basis is when many citizens of colonized nations resorted to violent protests to demand their rights to freedom. In some African countries, the struggle for independence was so serious that guerrilla groups resulted; these believed in killing the white men. It is also worth mentioning that the colonial powers; in retaliation, killed the citizens of nations they colonised to pass a message to other rebels. A lot of people were killed while proper round table discussions would have saved a lot of lives.
Summary
In conclusion, violence can be used as a language; a means to communicate; but humans can do better than act on their animal instincts. Whenever an avenue of communicating one’s needs is blocked, there is need to seek more channels. All the same, even the most educated and learned among us have at some point shown that they have “a violent bone in their body” and have used such to put across a message, a warning, or a threat.
