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Many are the times when we express our feelings in words so that people understand us well, and if there is need for help, we are then aided. Thats the simplest way of passing our messages across.
But my philosophy lecturer has always said in class that hardly 10% of a message is usually passed in words. He goes ahead to proportion the modes in which a message may be passed across; 30% facial expression, 30% tone of speech and 30% based on the perception that the recipient of the message has of you.
Personally, I have seen messages being passed accross in a different way. Where I go to school, at the University of Nairobi in Kenya, we have a unique way of passing across messages. In an environment where there is hardly anything that works, channels of communication have been broken. Students have therefore been forced to resort to violence in order to pass their messages across.
This is how the students defend themselves. Since the acts of violence will be covered by the media, they will take that opportunity to air their grievances; and hopefully, the society at large will sympathize with them. This may trigger the administration into taking action to solve their problems.
Though I personally do not support the thought of resorting to violence as a way of passing on a message to the authorities, I have always found myself in trouble when I am asked to give my opinion on how students at the university can pass their grievances across to the university administration. How do we communicate with people who dont want to listen to us? This is the challenge we are facing as we look for an alternative language to violence.
Away from universities and matters dealing with students, violence has been used to communicate in very many areas. When a husband batters his wife or vice versa, there is a message that is being passed across. It could be that either of them thinks that the marriage can no longer work.
When school children turn to violent behaviour, their teachers should try to find out the message they are trying to pass. It could be as a result of violence in their homes, which could cause restlessness, loss of concentration and worse, the aforementioned violent behaviour.
If the crime rate increases and the criminals are exhibiting a lot of violence in their acts, they certainly are trying to communicate. It could be frustrations, poverty or even a reflection of the upbringing of the criminal.
I took my time to examine the theories behind aggression and more so, violence.
Discussions of violence often produce a definition that complements a particular theory. For example, psychologists tend to explain violence within a scheme of psychological causes, whereas ethologists will advocate a more biological foundation. Mackintosh (1990), in his exploration of this problem, stated that attempts at describing violence are both diverse and often influenced by the professional discipline of the protagonist offering the explanation. He also described a lack of agreed meaning in much of the related terminology. This means that discussion is further hindered by semantic difficulties. He also claimed that many of the views held result more from advocacy than evidence, a suggestion that implies that most of these theories are described as being mutually exclusive.
Some biologists believe that violence is 'shaped by the brain' (Bylinsky 1982). Examples of biological studies of the origins of violence are those involving genetic factors, endocrine influences and examination of brain structures (Lanza 1983). Siann (1985) discussed the fact that neurotransmitters, 'brain messengers' noradrenalin, dopamine and serotonin, have all been found in increased concentration in the limbic system in the brain, and have been associated with fighting behaviour in animals.
Serotonin levels and the relationship to emotional and aggressive behaviour was also noted by Valzelli (1981). But while some studies implicate serotonin with aggression, this is not supported in other studies (Bioulac et al 1980).
Siann (1985) evaluated the range of investigations into specific biological processes and functions that control aggression and violence. These are included:
The limbic system
Epilepsy-related disorders
Head injuries
Autonomic nervous system and skin conductance level
Biochemistry
Genetics.
She concluded that there was a lack of firm evidence to support a clear link between any one of these substrates and aggression. She proposed that a number of studies designed to look at this relationship should be 'carefully and rigorously carried out'.
Boelkins and Heiser (1970) argued that to adhere strictly to a biological causation of aggression is inadequate because the neurological control of aggression is complex and incompletely understood.
Klopfer (1974) defined ethology as the study of behaviour from a biological viewpoint. According to Lefkowitz et al (1977), ethology applies the method of biology to behavioural phenomena, examining similarities and differences between species by both naturalistic observation and experimentation. Margargee (1969) stated that this is done with the notion that hypotheses derived from the study of organisms below humans on the evolutionary scale will provide insights into human behaviour as well.
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Writer Profile
Martin Tairo
As a very creative Architecture student at the University of Nairobi, i have had lots of interests in many forms of arts. These include performing arts, writing and drawing.
I have written many articles on issues ranging from humour, politics, religion and even the most controversial topics like human rights and abortion.
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Comments
Language as violence,violence as language Francis Awinda | Aug 1st, 2005
I think this is a well researched write up with illustrations that significantly brings out the logic in the authors mind.
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