Hyperviolence is an form of intellectual and human deconstruction that comes from the depth and need to be part of a brave new dystopia. It is not at all unique.
The grave mistake we make is to think that such hyperviolent behavior by one class of people against another is something new. It is nothing new. The Hellenistic period in the west, and Waring States period in China were full of radically hyperviolent, pure desire driven sycophants. Power, desire and protest and the typical triggers as this picture from Mynmyar shows.
http://foucault.info/documents/pierreRiviere/foucault.pierreRiviere.interview.en.html
Such violence is 100% against everything I am willing to accept. But one must not use hyperviolence to overcome it, as Steve's second post points out, one must use intelligence and adapt it to an ideology of humanism. Humanism for a libertarian? Sure, humanism, it means that your rights and my rights are not separate rights, they are human rights.
The grave mistake we make is to think that such hyperviolent behavior by one class of people against another is something new. It is nothing new. The Hellenistic period in the west, and Waring States period in China were full of radically hyperviolent, pure desire driven sycophants. Power, desire and protest and the typical triggers as this picture from Mynmyar shows. Japan of course has a long history of hyperviolence both real and imagined typified by the beautiful destruction in anime where we see Zatoichi the one time Buddhist/ Shintoist hero of Japanese folklore turned into a ruthless killer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g839-k8pf_o
China's cultural revolution was the single most hyperviolent and least understood event of the last century. http://www.morningsun.org/index.html
The hyperviolence Steve describes below is part of a system of cultural thought that reduces the human person to what they say they are or what they say they want to be. It is only one manifestation of this phenomenon in global culture. Its victims are typically women and children and men who engage in it, but also include priests and monks. One can read about how it works in Cambodia here: http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0WTb_yl4dNHiQ0A80ijzbkF/SIG=12895b1nc/EXP=1205154597/**http%3A//www.flickr.com/photos/61165888@N00/497238936/
One must transcend this culture to build a future worth living in. Tolerance and the development of strategies that are less Michel Foucault's radical surveillance society or hyperviolence and illness society are not compatible. Focault's vision builds a future of technological and human violence no one wants to live in. At least no human being. Instead we should concentrate on building a future more in line with the nature of natural world and our relation to it and our own self-reliance because these are the best bets to ensure humanity has a future. It is a culture that is not humane, but where humanity toward others naturally increases on its own. It is not altruistic, it is enlightened in its self-interest. Go to the American Friends Service Commitee or the Tzu Chi foundation to see how this is accomplished.
Hyperviolence of course is only the reaction of one group with power to others who attack them without mercy. It cuts in every direction because anyone can feel the slight of losing face in any post-modern society.
Such violence is 100% against everything I am willing to accept. But one must not use hyperviolence to overcome it, as Steve's second post points out, one must use intelligence and adapt it to an ideology of humanism. Humanism for a libertarian? Sure, humanism, it means that your rights and my rights are not separate rights, they are human rights.
The state has no part in this equation of social relationships except to protect the rights we have from each other and prevent crime and ensure public order. It seems a little radical I know, but without these basic protections one can expect hyperviolence to gain a greater footing in our popular culture.
This is most clearly illustrated in UFC or Ultimate Fighting Championships, http://www.ufc.com/ where one man beats another into incoherence, much like Thai Kickboxing gone bad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRsR2HrBO5A and much less sophisticated than Sumo wrestling or Tai Chi http://www.tai-chi.com/. In Tai Chi any violence when it is necessitated by violence should simply be used to restore a more natural relationship between the offended parties.
One push and one pushes back, but to push does not mean to destroy and to resist does not mean to ruin it means to deter violence to restore the natural respect and relationship between the two parties. It does not compete therefore nothing can compete with it. Otherwise the brutality of human nature, its petty jealousies are given full play and the human animal becomes more like its animal and less like the mature and responsible humanity that should be its ultimate goal. Hyperviolence- as in Colombia- produces a breakdown in the nature and respect natural to human relationships and the society operates as a kind of kabuki theater for its own narcissism.
Shantideva writing in the 1st century AD offers another and even more radically non-violent perspective when he states in chapter six of the Bodhisattvacharyavatara (Bodhisatta's Way of Life): That violence of all types is produced by the anger we have against ourselves and transfer to others. http://www.shantideva.net/guide_ch6.htm
He notes:
1. Whatever wholesome deeds,
such as veneration of the Buddhas, and generosity,
that are amassed over thousands of eons,
all will be destroyed in a moment of anger.
2. There is no sin as a great anger,
and no fortitude as deep as patience,
Thus in various ways I should strive to meditate
on patience.
If only the modern world would listen to him....violence for it to be effectively deflected and defused must be understood on its own terms as a phenomena that is part of but separate from the real nature of the human person, except the sycophantic ones. The Quakers of Pennsylvania and Delaware have advocated non-violence and peaceful resistance to all things violent for 400 years, in complete solidarity with the Buddhists and Taoists of the world.
I follow this way of life so it is interesting I should study war, violence or international relations(it is interesting any libertarian should) but we must. I do so to incorporate principles of non-violence and humanity into the intellectual discussion so that our naturally violent tendencies can be controlled and brought back to their proper role in the system of human relationships- who out there honestly does not want a more peaceful future where the development of human potential is possible as part of a greater intellectual movement?
Without game to hunt, it is not necessary for human beings to prey on each other.
The role of increased state involvement and dehumanization of the human person into a social security number or real ID, or the verichip implant, is part of a movement away from the humanizing aspects of modern culture and toward an alienated, demhanized society. Where one is simply a number or a code. That dehumanization trend in modern society can only lead to hyperviolence. So this like other forms of violent behavior (intellectual or real) it must be defelected and returned to its proper natural and non-violent realtionship. Otherwise, you are nothing but a number in a hyperviolent world:
http://www.amazon.com/Youre-Nothing-but-Number-strategies/dp/1424335124/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205071354&sr=1-1
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