Understanding violence - Questions for society

Weekend events, which included three suspected drug-related deaths and nine stabbing incidents at one open-air concert, will probably provoke the usual the-country’s-gone-to-hell-in-a-handcart tirades but maybe we should pause and look just a bit more deeply at the cultural evolution that has brought us to the point where someone will, for no reason at all, stab perfect strangers at a concert.

It is not rocket science to see that our ambiguous and blitzkrieg attitude to alcohol probably sowed the seeds for a dangerous nonchalance around the use of other drugs. It is not hard either to argue that our tolerance of petty crime and casual violence, even gratuitous violence as an entertainment, weakens an individual’s natural aversion to violence. However, identifying the causes is the easy part — the real challenge is doing something about it.