Violence

The truth is this year has brought me some bitter moments, like the crash.

A few days ago the class of my oldest daughter, Javiera (14), was violently robbed while camping near Valparaíso. My daughter in particular was threatened with guns and knives. The experience is quite traumatic, and forgive me for not going into much detail, but I’m in no mood to feed anyone’s morbid curiosity.

The truth is that violence is far too widespread in our society. Beyond the criminals, who act with ever greater violence, violence has spread among the rest of us too. Some say this actually happens because criminals often act while on drugs. It may be that drugs amplify it, and partly cloud the criminal’s mind, but that doesn’t justify it. The truth is I want the people who attacked my daughter and her classmates to get the punishment they deserve.

However, I’m not satisfied with the way the police have handled the matter, and I’m afraid this act will go unpunished. As a robbery it’s insignificant in terms of the value of what was taken, but what we condemn is the violence with which these thieves acted. Things are not exactly as has been published out there, and I hope my society, my government, shows me that the taxes I pay count for something, that the authorities I have elected care about my safety.

Listening to each other

These days I happened to hear a mother remind us how important it is that we listen to one another. The warning came up in the context of an argument in which a father raised some criticisms.

The truth is that many times, for the sake of acting for the good of the majority, the dissenting opinion gets crushed, gets booed, and as a group we don’t let it be expressed. But if we are all different, why should we completely ignore the one who thinks differently?

Protecting freedom

It’s true that we must keep the bad elements away, and it’s our duty as a society to protect people’s safety, to safeguard their freedom.

We must not let a few take our freedom away.

Public spaces must not be taken over by criminals, because they were created by us or our ancestors for society to enjoy.

What’s happening is that we deal with safety individually: we lock ourselves in, put up bars and alarms, hire security companies, live in heavily guarded gated communities, nice and quiet, hidden in front of a screen, be it a TV or a computer.

But when violence hits us, that’s when we turn to the group and act like a herd. We want justice, and if the strongest one tells us to grab the hoes and light the torches, we surely will. But if someone in the group takes a different, more rational position, or simply raises a concern, everyone turns on him, roars at him in fury, and we ignore him. We go after the beast, because it has to be destroyed for what it did to us.

Both extremes are disastrous. Overly individualistic behavior makes us vulnerable. Herd behavior turns us into thugs.

I invite you to think about these things, and I’d like to hear your comments.