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From: rfelix@netcom.com (Robbie Felix)
Subject: Re: WARNING.....(please read)...
Message-ID: <rfelixC5yEH4.8s6@netcom.com>
Keywords: brick, rock,  danger, gun, violent, teenagers
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
References: <1993Apr23.144326.9535@ctp.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1993 20:34:15 GMT
Lines: 49

In article <1993Apr23.144326.9535@ctp.com> bpita@ctp.com (Bob Pitas) writes:
>In article <1r1d62$d6s@agate.berkeley.edu> bh@anarres.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Brian Harvey) writes:
>>rfelix@netcom.com (Robbie Felix) writes:
>>>How about the thousands of kind teenagers who volunteer at local
>>>agencies to help children, seniors, the homeless?
>>
>>Hear, hear!  Thanks, Robbie.
>>
>>You also don't read that much about violence *against* teenagers, such as
>>George Bush burying alive tens of thousands of unarmed Iraqi 17-year-olds,
>>who were trying to surrender, with bulldozers.
>>
>>
>>On the other hand, I think it *is* true, without singling out teenagers
>>for blame, that violence is more socially acceptable than it used to be.
>>Those of us who'd like to discourage violence have plenty of work to do
>>with people of all ages.
>
>Well, this isn't the right group for this, but I have to say that I don't
>think violence is any more socially acceptable now, by any means.  How
>can you say that when we used to have of pistol-toting gunslingers as 
>heros, or even gangland thugs being considered romantic.  Do you think
>our great grandparent got yelled at by their parents for playing cowboys
>and indians?  I don't think so.  That behavior was somewhat encouraged
>back then, in fact.
>I think the only difference between now and then is that nowadays, when
>some teenager kills another one in a classroom in California, we here 
>about it in MA the same day.  Back in the old days, they'd never hear 
>about something like that, period. 

Yeah, People act really shocked about violence, as though it were new
to our species...

What about the holocaust? The crusades? The Salem witch trials? The
religious persecutions of the middle-ages? 

What about violent acts carried out in the name of religion all over
the world? What about the early Christians put to death by the Romans?
The Jews persecuted by Christians?

There are a lot more humans today than there have ever been. I do not
know the stats, but there are far more people on the planet than there
were 2 or 3 hundred years ago! The per capita acts of violence are
probably not significantly different than they were a hundred or a
thousand years ago!

There is nothing new about violence.

rf
