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The Quest For Political Power Through Violence
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 6]
Page 6 of 6
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In reference to these forms of violence, Dom Helder
Camara[23], in his book Spiral of violence, talks on three forms of
violence which converge to form what he called the spiral of violence
that gave his book its title. According to him, the first in this spiral
of violence is institutional violence[24]. It refers to violent rules
and policies institutions societies impose on their citizens which
subjugate them to subhuman slavery condition. Hence, they are unjustly
treated, humiliated and restricted such that all hope seems to be lost.
It is this institutional violence, according to him, that prompts
counter-violence[25], another form of violence. It manifests itself in
the form of riots, terrorism, revolutions etc, to the subservience that
institutional violence inflicts. Any attempt to respond to the heavy
wind of this counter-violence gives rise to the third form of violence
which he called repressive violence. It is usually a reaction against
counter-violence by the perpetrators of institutional violence as a
solution to counter violence through their agents such as thugs, police,
’EFCC’, or even another institutional violence such that the spiral
continues. This third type of violence is the most awful because in bid
to repress whatever constitutes a threat to their power, the powerful
use any repressive means at the reach to achieve their aim. In this
vicious progression of violence from covert (injustice) to overt
(revolt) and then to tyrannical (repression), one sees the vicious
rotation of violence to be endless, hence, rendering shattered a
harmonious and peaceful co-existence[26].
Causes of Violence
Several factors can be said to be the causes of violence. Speaking about the causes of violence, Arendt opines:
To
speak about the causes of violence in these terms must appear
presumptuous at a moment when floods of foundation money are channeled
into the various research projects of social scientists, when deluge of
books on the subject has already appeared, when eminent natural
scientists-biologists, psychologists, ethologists, and zoologists have
joined in an all-out effort to solve the riddle of “aggressiveness†in
human behavior, and even a brand new science, called “polemologyâ€, has
emerged. [27]
Despite the above, certain factors are still considered
as being the primordial causes of violence. They include: egoism,
injustice, aggression, racism, terrorism etc. we shall examine some of
them in this write-up.
EGOISM
Egoism is seen as an exhibition of
selfishness. This is the attitude of one considering his self interest
as more important than the others. Indeed it is an undeniable fact that
most violence we experience around the globe are caused by egoism. This
is because as W.A Wallace says, “egoism creates in man a wall of
exclusiveness to others. By this exclusiveness he becomes full of
himself such that at times he looks at the other as an enemy who should
even be eliminated. This phenomenon underscores the social conflicts and
intolerance among people, hence violence is the result.â€
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 6]
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