A small group, Peace and Wisdom Studies, has established itself at the Bodhi Garden in Brighton, Sussex, England, under the wing of Chris Dornley, a senior in the Dharma. He kindly invited me to speak at the Bodh Garden with the title for the evening
I gave a talk on WHY ARE WE SUCH A VIOLENT NATION?- with questions and answers and small group discussions on the theme.
According to a Russian sociologist, England has been at war in the past 900 years more than any other nation on Earth – around 56 years out of every hundred. The United States, its closest ally, has invaded 19 countries since 1950. It doesn’t end there. There is violence on our streets, domestic violence, child abuse, alcohol fuelled violence, drug fuelled violence, football violence and verbal and physical abuse upon ethnic communities. Our prisons are desperately overcrowded; the judiciary dishes out longer sentences.
What is it about our psyche? Why don’t we make the connection between war on other nations and the violence on our streets?
Is there an appalling spiritual and philosophical vacuum at the heart of our lives? Do we obscure this violence behind the language of being the world’s longest democracy or a civilised people?
The reference that England has spent more time in war than any other nation on Earth since the 10th century is found on page 72 of “The Psychology of War.” by Lawrence LeShan. It was the result of research by the renowned Russian sociologist, Pitirim Sorokim.
The day after I gave the talk, The Independent newspaper, a national daily (and perhaps the most thoughtful of our daily newspapers) had a lengthy feature on the ongoing aggression, cynicism and negativity in Britain. In the same week, friends told me that Time magazine had a front-page feature in its European edition on the anger and violence that plagued Britain. Obviously, violence among our species is widespreadbut generalisations prevent us from looking into causes and conditions for violence on our own doorstep and in our country.
The Buddha directly linked the mad pursuit of pleasure to violence.
I am currently reading the Slovenian philosopher and culture critic Slavoj Zizeks’ “Violence.” He makes it clear the violence of our social, political and economic structures, and the thinking and language that accompanies these structures, feeds a violent system and a brutal way of life with its fabricated realities and obsession with image. Read also the American writer, Marilynne Robinson’s The Death of Adam, especially her incisive chapter on Darwinism and the myths and arrogant certainties of Darwinists around genetic ‘behaviour.’