How do you counteract violence, anger or hatred?

Question

This question was asked at the Dropping Knowledge event on 9th September by Anonymous, New York, USA. To find out more about Dropping Knowledge check out our blogs:

Dropping Knowledge in the UK: http://uk.blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-qT1KKPQoRKdVT4lowpJCljbFokkuIzI8?p=1048

Dropping Knowledge in the US: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-d8pH0dcoRKeB12yOcnUQp.9VCFos?p=12745

To discuss this subject in more detail follow this link to the official Dropping Knowledge website: http://www.droppingknowledge.org/bin/posts/focus/1127.page

Answer 1

Counteract Violence with Knowledge...educated yourself about the situation at hand and seek out peaceful, collaborative and empowering alternatives. Violence spawns from an attempt to recover what one believes was pilfered. Whether this was money, land, dignity, etc—violence is only a temporary fix to secure these lost assets and rational, intelligent avenues to make the self whole yield the most sustainable results.

Counteract Anger with Understanding...pause, listen and truly hear the angry voice. Anger is frustration and becomes louder because no one will listen. Often anger can be diffused significantly when given a passive audience. You do not have to agree with the position to support the human behind it.

Counteract Hate with Love...hate is toxic. And perhaps my answer is cliché, but in my personal experience...it is the only way. Every individual is human (with good parts and not so good parts) applying this ideology inhibits the reciprocation of this hate. Hating the hate gives it an excuse to hate more, but by loving the hate...the diseased cycle is starved.

Answer 2

To answer any of the three questions asked you first have to look for and find the reasons they occur. This is not easy to define. there are many reasons So there will be many answers. There is one that does stand out amongst them all. Most people will not want to believe it and will even become one or all of the conditions listed when confronted with the truth.

Religion, mainly the leaders of the religions directly promote hate, violence and denial. Exaine most conflicts and you will find religious teachings behind them. Even those of us that dislike religious groups still have many of the beliefs of the predominate religion where we grew up. As long as the religious groups continue to teach by fear and promote hatred of other religious groups there is no way to solve the other problems involved.

It can not be possible to eliminate these conditions completely. It is very possible to bring general peace to the world.

Over population is another major factor in these. When there are too many people consentrated in one place the society becomes more combative. If allowed to continue the time will come when there will be total chaos and all civilization will suffer tremendously.

As most questions, there is no simple answer and it will take a lot of effort especially of those that do have a lot of influence over others. People do want and seem to need someone or some belief to follow rather than taking the time to honestly understand who they are and why. Blind faith will only create more hatred and violence.

Answer 3

By making everybody the same. Everyone will look alike, they will be the same race, sex, age. They will all make the same amount of money shop in the same store and have the same barber which by the way everybody is a barber and every body dose everybody's hair. Everybody cuts her on hair. Everybody drives the same car and everybody has the same thoughts. Everybody eats, works and sleeps at the same time. Nobody, there is no nobody everybody is everybody.

With everything the same there is no jealousy. With no jealousy there is no hate. No hate no anger. No anger no violence.

You know, if we all would just sit down and smoke a little weed and relax...we would realize that there just is no need for those things that you are so worried about. When you have your head right, violence, anger and hatred just don't fit into the general scheme of things.

Answer 4

The only thing you can really do as an everyday person is to try and educate, be patient, and turn the other cheek. Most of hatred is from ignorance. Violence and anger are individual issues. Poor upbringing is the most common factor. Neglect, abuse, etc...
I find it to be very effective to be overly kind when someone is being blatantly rude. It's hard sometimes but, you end up the better person in the scenario :-)

Answer 5

Concrete example of counteracting violence:

Lebanon

Israel sent a rocket into Lebanon killing nine people then said oops terribly sorry didn't mean to do it terrible mistake. Typical Israeli tactic - do something to incite violence and then deny culpability - knowing full well the Lebanese will not swallow this disingenuous excuse. The aim being to incite a violent attack against Israel to which Israel can respond with increased violence.

The Lebanese locked up their soldiers in barracks and refused to respond to the escalation of Israel's provocation. A provocation which had been planned since 2004 in order to take over Lebanon having rid the country of the Syrians.

Had the Lebanese responded in kind then Israel would have had tacit agreement from its colluding partners the USA and UK to invade Lebanon on the basis that this was the only way to attain 'self defence.'

If only we had a free press then Israel's tactics would be revealed for what they are. You can only counteract violence with freedom in the press and the ability to tell the whole story. Unfortunately truth is the first casualty of our war in Iraq and in the war Israel is waging against all its neighbours to gain control and dominance over all Arab nations encroaching further and further into territories it has no intention of giving up. In this not only do Bush and Blair and the predecessors collude but so do our journalists.

Lovey dovey groovy feel good stuff will only turn you into a doormat. Mahatma fought his battles with the law and with publicity - as well as satya girsha.

Answer 6

Analyze and get the roots of the problem. Show them love and not hatred. Show them compassion and not anger. Show them the beauty of life. Show them that humility is one virtue that a person can have and that can counteract violence. Above all, show them that Prayers and loving God is the greatest act
people can do against violence, anger and hatred.

Answer 7

Go back in time and change the upbringing of the individual. However this will not work because some of us - even dogs and other animals are programmed in some way to feel hatred or anger toward someone. It is one thing to feel anger or hatred, but to act on it is a very different story. In a philosophical sense to the question there is no real answer. And as much as you can try to eliminate the negativity in humans and animals it will not work.

Answer 8

With love, patience, forgiveness, and understanding. I know easier said than done. Being different and proud to be you is a difficult thing. Try to remember this: prejudice=ignorance=fear=violence They are afraid of you. They don't know you. Feel sorry for them. This is not something that will poof be gone if you ignore it either. Violence solves nothing, ever! You can move to Seattle which is the most friendly city toward gay people in the US along with San Francisco (I live in Seattle) but you will find haters there, and everywhere. Try to keep your chin up. I admire your courage. What is LGTBs?

Answer 9

With love, compassion and understanding. With guidance and perseverence.

One cannot know what is good, what is right from wrong, if they are not shown or taught this.

Unfortunately, not enough people care to make this difference. But if you look really hard, you will find that there are many decent people who do, and you should feel blessed and honoured to have met them and appreciate all that you have that is good.

Sadly, there are people who are just too far gone these days, and it's an enormous task to undo all the hatred and violence in the world.

Someone once said that anger is love wronged. If left unchecked it turns to hatred. Violence is the inability to cope.

Horrendous crimes of hate and murder are simply the mind having "lost it" and having crossed over into insanity.

Unfortunately once too far gone there is no road back for most. But everyone can change if they really want to. It takes effort heal yourself, to forgive the world, to forgive yourself and create a new path of understanding and compassion, when so much of the world is evil.

But I always say start with the children. They are the future, and help them as much as you can. If parents are the problem, try to deal with it if possible. Schools often have the resources.

Answer 10

You counteract it by foccusing what you have in life,none of us can control what is happening in the world with so many views.Staying positive with family and friends in hard times sometimes small values make the difference when it is held wide spread.I kiss my kids and tell them i love them every night and i hope it goes down thro each generation to when maybe when countries blend so much that just maybe one day there wont be a need for violence.I cant control but i can live.

Answer 11

It is all about balance. If there is violence, anger and hatred, then it has to met with peace and calm. It is hard not to want revenge, but that will just make us all spiral down faster. Remedies like listening, understanding and giving time to get to the bottom of the cause of violent behavior is what we need to dissipate it. It takes time and a lot of effort, but violence, anger and hatred is often a call for help or attention. The right kind of attention is needed is all. We need to start somewhere.