Violence and Human Nature

Zinn’s point of his writing in chapter 3 is that human ‘violent nature’ is usually by the up brining of the individual. The one consistent in Zinn’s writing with this chapter is: Are we supposed to blame war on human nature? Is the government the be-all-end-all when it comes to how humans react and act during war? Those are some extremely well thought out questions that Zinn brought up multiple times. There are not many ties resulting back to any psychological, physical or any other type of studies to relate on how humans become violent/aggressive in the world we live in. History is the one thing that Einstein, Freud and many other intellectual people have pointed back to the reason why some people would become hostile. Milgram experiment can really put some perspective on how it affects humans with how close they are when it comes to inflicting pain, or making a situation worse, for another individual. When those people saw wrong answers, they were supposed to hit a button to inflict an electric buzz. When the study examined when someone was put closer to the person, they were more likely to exit the experiment.

If they were place further away with less conflict of interested, they were less inclined to leave the experiment. Never the less, people still were pushing the button because a person with ‘more power’ told them that they had to push that button if they were to get an answer wrong. Zinn also points out that the notion of violence in war is usually just another man following his country’s best interest. We as humans, almost always, assume that our political leaders know best. There were multiple stories in there of men that were not proud of what they did but just simply put that they were doing what they were told to do. To the people that don’t do what the government tries to ‘brainwash’ them in doing for war purposes are dismantled and looked down upon by the government. They are out casted as cowards and usually put into jail. Usually Zinn’s main theory is that most people aren’t genetically violent people (unless they has specific mental health issues) it is usually involved with what type of culture they have been exposed to. When it comes to war, those people are just really doing what they are told to do because they believe it is in their best interest, and their countries.

The response to his theories and beliefs would be almost completely on point with what he stated in his reasoning. I do believe that the majority of ‘naturally’ violent people do some from a bad childhood, or they had friends that influenced them to be not so good human beings. There is always an exception when it comes to people being violent when it comes to war. The story about how those men in Vietnam were order to kill everything, then burn it, in that small village was outrageous. Some people actually went through with those orders, and rightfully so. They were just looking out for themselves, which is obvious human nature (especially when it comes to war). I am not a violent person but if I were put in that particular situation, I would have shamefully acted the exact same way and do what I was told to do.

The picture that I chose to use is your typical World War 2 propaganda. It is displaying Uncle Sam point at the on individual basically saying: We, as Americans, need your help taking out all of the bad guys overseas. As you can tell by the picture, he is very intense and confident. The picture leaves very little doubt that you going to the military forces of the United States of America will result in a bad ending. The finger point just says it all.