Mankind's Eternal Affinity for Violence.

• Author: KREYCHE, GERALD F.
• Position: Brief Article

THE WORD "violence" seems to leap off newspaper pages every day. What set off the most headlines recently was the killing of 12 teenagers and a teacher by two students (who subsequently committed suicide) at Colorado's Columbine High School. The public always reacts more strongly when kids die, as opposed to those who have lived out more of their lives. Violence is hardly a recent phenomenon, though. Its roots go back to prehistory.

In many ways, violence is what brought our universe into being, if one accepts the Big Bang Theory. Regarding our own planet, geologists tell us that it was brute natural violence that pushed the tectonic plates together, causing continental upheavals that, in turn, formed mountains. The eruption of volcanoes still produces catastrophic destruction. In 1883, one of the world's largest explosions occurred on the island of Krakatoa between Java and Sumatra. It caused a tsunami (tidal wave) that wreaked havoc and drowned thousands of people. In 1999, two earthquakes in Turkey killed thousands. Some sorts of violence, despite their gigantic scale, are perfectly natural.

Instances of violence by and to humans are legion. The history of violence is the history of the human race, and it has invaded nearly every human sphere. (Indeed, mystery writer Patricia Cornwall recently donated $1,500,000 to the State of Virginia to alleviate human violence through forensic studies.)

Many sports thrive on violence to produce record crowds. Boxing, almost the epitome of violence, became even more so when Mike Tyson bit off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear in a 1996 heavyweight championship fight. College wrestling frankly is rather boring, as no wrestler wants to relinquish a good hold on the other. TV understood this and made professional wrestling an exhibition of some actual, but mostly feigned, violence that was good for the box office. Not that wrestlers don't take their bruises and need to be in top condition, but their body slams, head banging, and rope boomerangs are largely a put-on, though one died and another was paralyzed in 1999.

Hockey is another prime example of violence, as its sticks frequently are used to inflict bodily harm. Soccer may not be intrinsically violent, but its fans make up for this with their frequently riotous behavior--especially in Europe and South America. Frankly, the public has a love/hate fascination with violence.

Freudians often claim the human confrontation with violence begins with the...