Are We Born Violent

Are We Born Violent

Are We Born Violent?

Defined as the exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse, the question is often raised. Are we born violent? Is it an intrinsic instinct or environmental factor responsible for violent behavior in humans? From this, we get the argument of whether violence is dependent on one’s nature verses their nurture, or perhaps even both.
Freudian theory suggests that aggression is innate and is largely driven by an unconscious psychological construct called the Id and is said to be naturally aggressive. However, it is also implied that violence stems from an ego defense mechanism, such as displacement, where you displace your feelings of aggression onto a non-threatening target. Such would be the matter when looking at cases of heinous murders committed by people on children and even infants in many instances. Males are accountable for most of the violence we see today and it is said that, genetically speaking, boys are born with the propensity to indulge in such behavior. Some say it’s because of too much testosterone while others argue further in depth that it has more to do with a chemical imbalance or miscount of X and Y chromosomes.
On April 16th 2007, Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at a popular university walked onto his school campus and opened fire killing 32 people, injuring 23 and eventually taking his own life, therefore meriting the title of the Virginia Tech massacre. Cho was said to be diagnosed with severe anxiety disorder and declared mentally ill. Is it really genetics that drives us to do such terrible things, or was Golding accurate in writing about the human’s capacity for evil and its innate instincts that lay dormant in most of us.
The first 5 years of a child’s life are the most important ones. These few short years are what shape and mold a child because it is at this point when they are most impressionable and their future is determined. In other words if a child grows up surrounded by violence, then...

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