thread: 2005-05-16 : Violence
On 2005-05-17, Weeks wrote:
So, um, what's violence?
The dictionary definitions all seem to be about abuse, which suggests to me that causing gross physical trauma to another person as a means of self-defense wouldn't be called violence by our society—except that that's obviously not what we generally think violence means. I think.
Are you violent toward creatures (directly, or by proxy) that you eat? Can plants be the victim of violence? And our very existence requires resources. Resources that another organism can't have right now. Another organism that might die because of it. Is that form of "asserting one's position" by necessity violent?
And I have this question about rape that I have no one to ask, so I'm just firing it out here. I know men and women who were raped (to various degrees) at some point in their lives. The men seem to be OK and the women (with one exception) are all fucked up about it. Why? Is that representative of a norm?
