Is the World Really More Violent Today?

by nvrgnbk 60 Replies latest jw friends

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  nvrgnbk

  A quick perusal of the Bible reveals an extremely violent world.

  Any brief study of human history reveals acts of barbarism and bloody atrocities dispersed across millenia .

  Is the world of today perhaps safer than ever?
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  PEC

  I think it is about the same.

  Philip
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  Hortensia

  There is a really interesting book on the subject, The Archetype of the Apocalypse, written by a former JW from a Jungian perspective. He sees cycles of increasing and waning violence in history and believes we are in an increasingly violent cycle which he thinks will last about 500 years. He has also written a Jungian analysis of the book of Revelations which I haven't read because I really am not interested in the Bible.
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  nvrgnbk

  Thanks, Hortensia.
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  frankiespeakin

  Killing is much more efficient, with new technology, other than that about the same.
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  JH

  My dad used to say that when he was young, nobody locked their bikes and it was very very rare that a bike was stolen.

  Can we make a comparison with honesty compared to violence?

  When you look at terrorists blowing themselves up in the middle of crowds, you wonder if mankind got more violent, or if their violent ways just change a little.
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  nvrgnbk

  Interesting points, JH.

  Is it possible that we tend to idealize and romanticize the past?
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  Nathan Natas

  I think it is more violent on both a macro (world) and micro (personal) scale.

  Today we have non-nuclear weapons that make those of WWI and WWII look like fireworks, and we have the technology to deliver those weapons with astounding accuracy. Weapons alone do not constitute "violence," any more than tools constitute a mansion. Lots of real brutal violence was accomplished in Africa with simple hand tools - machetes. One of the big problems in my opinion is the growth of radical Islam with its "Kill for Allah" dogma. Probably the only way to extinguish that meme is to deprive it of a brain to live in. You do the math.

  On a micro (personal) level, we have gang "swarmings" (5 to 20 on one victim, punching and kicking) and home invasions. Today they are more common because the perps face no penalties for their crimes. The concepts of the obligations and privileges of CITIZENS has become obsolete. I will restore these concepts when I become King, and justice will be swift. For the sake of the children, vote for me.
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  BlackSwan of Memphis

  Hmmm no.

  I just googled this and found this:
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  VM44

  Remember the early scene in Conan the Barbarian where the pillagers killed all the adults in the village, killed Conan's mother by beheading, and took all the children and sold them into slavery?

  Even though the movie was a work of fiction, that scene was a picture of how thing were back then in Bible times.

  The Bible is a very violent book, written in a violent age.

  --VM44