QUOTE OF THE DAY : "And you will know My name is the Lord, when I lay My vengeance upon thee." - Ezekiel 25-17

LINK OF THE DAY : Snaps Blog

I will speak daggers to her, but use none;
My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites;
How in my words soever she be shent,
To give them seals never, my soul, consent!



I was reading another blog on this site... just one I found randomly. The guy was talking about an experience he had at a coffee shop. After buying a coffee he suddenly had the urge to toss the hot coffee in the clerks face. Isn't it odd how sometimes, a sudden irrational, nearly overpowering desire to harm others comes over us ?

I've experienced this feeling before. It must be some sort of instinctive behaviour left over from our hunter/gatherer days. Or are some of us just psychos ?

I don't think I'm psycho, in all the instances that this feeling has come over me... I immediately say to myself...
"Okay... WTF was that?"

I'm sure all of you have experienced something similar to this.

We all seem to think we're rational, civilized beings... but under the surface... just barely under the surface: we're animals.

We're designed to prolong the species at any cost. The savage inside of us will not hesitate in using acts of violence as a means to protect itself and it's interests. You see it in the animal kingdom, a pack animal will feel threatened for whatever reason by another member in it's pack. It will attack, start a fight, for no other reason than to prove itself to others and eliminate a rival. Do these same instinctive behaviours exist in us ? Or has violent media just warped our fragile animal minds ?

Deny it all you want... but why do you think we take a certain pleasure in violence ? Wrestling, Boxing, Racing, Violent movies, violent video games... there are reasons these things give us so much joy. We're violent creatures by nature.

We take joy in the suffering of others, even if it it's just a movie. We are the only species on the planet to do so.

This is by no means an original concept, and I don't claim otherwise... I just wanted to discuss it.
I hope I've provided sufficient intellectual snack food for you to chew on.

Comments are appreciated.

-Will


   Monday, September 22, 2003