BG Steyr

VIOLENCE- Gewalt

Today I´m going to tell you something about violence, because I think this is one of

the main problems in our time.

„Violence“ may concern different aspects. The word violence itself has

different meanings and can be used to describe several kinds of actions, as it has a

psychological and a physical component.

Our

world is full of violence. From all over we hear stories about mugging,

shooting, riots, cruelty, war, murder and death. And if you include the wider meanings

of the word - cruelity to animals, racism, pollution and devastation of the

environment - violence seems to be one of the chief characteristics of the human

race.

So we have to ask now: Was it always like that, or is violence another new problem of

the 20 century.

History, as far back as we can go, is full of violence of all kinds- especially war

with all the mass suffering and slaughter it causes. But there was also plenty of

murder, robbery and other personal violence as well. You needn´t look far for

evidence. It´s certainly true, to say, that we live in a violent world, and that the scale of

suffering and death is enormously greater than, it used to be informer days.

BG Steyr

We seem to live in a world, where violence is common - place, and where we can´t

grow up without being influenced by it. Even little children at the age of 5 and 6 are

confronted with violence nearly every day in their young lives. For example you find

violence in a lot of comics and films on TV, like Tom and Jerry, westerns and a lot of

sports like boxing, American football and so on. (Bild 1)

To end my talk, I would like to give you a short survey about real happenings,

concerning thedifferent aspects I mentioned above:

1. What about hooliganism, the actions of football fans breaking windows and

terrifying people not involved?

2. Another cruelty takes place in every day life: Children are often the victims of their

frustrated parents who have the feeling of having failed in their own lives, their

marriage and their jobs. Every day we are confronted with headlines like this: Mother

burnt baby´s feet with cigarette.

3.Fighting, another form of violence, is a very common feature in the lives of many

people of all ages - wether in drunken scraps in pubs, in street fights between rival

gangs, or simply in confrontations about different life styles. A lot of fighting may take

place in schools. It seems to be very important in our culture for men to be able to

show, that they can “handle themselves“, that they´re tough and fearless, which leads

to tough talking and an unwillingness to express gentle feelings or sensitive thoughts.

As a personal comment, I would like to add that it is unwise to condemn one thought

of violence and defend the other: they are may be different but they are both

destructive, undesirable and immoral, and there is no excuse for all them.