I first posted something very similiar to what I am about to post now, oh, about 10 years ago. But I can never seem to pull up discussions from that long ago, at least on a board search. And plus it has been about 10 years, so I think it is time to revisit my theory (and question):).
My question is simply this: What if violence in the world is just an illness? And what if it can be treated with a very effective medicine some day?
See, I don’t believe in retribution. Oh, I believe in other aspects of justice, like deterrence, incapacitation and of course, rehabilitation. But I believe violence, and indeed evil in general in the world, is just an illness. Evil people are simply sick, I believe. And if they don’t deserve our sympathy, they at least deserve our help, I should think.
I am very serious about this theory. And if anyone knows of anyone in any scientific field who might be interested in my theory, please tell them about our discussion at once.
And as always, thank you very much to all who reply:)
Then the people who don’t take the medicine will immediately get to rule all the others with absolute power. Because at the end of the day violence is the ultimate source of all authority.
You can pretend all you like that your very comfortable lifestyle doesn’t depend upon the willingness of the police and military to do violence on your behalf, but you are deluded. The only reason that you can live the life you do is because of your ability to do violence or coerce others into doing violence. That is the only reason your very society even exists.
If a drug were developed to eliminate violence then it would have to be administered to most people, me included, against our will. And the only way you can do that is by threatening us with violence. IOW for your violence cure to be applied universally would have to not be applied universally. Either me an my ilk won’t take it, or the military and law enforcement can;t take it. Either way those who are still able to use violence will immediately have total authority over the rest of the population.
Like all such totalitarian schemes to remove the freedom of the populace it is ill thought out and inevtiably results in the exploitation of the masses by a select elite.
“You can’t take away people’s right to be assholes”.
Actually, this was brought up in my original discussion. “People turning into defenseless sheep” might have been what was said, I don’t remember for sure. In any event, I don’t know if I mentioned this in the original discussion, but I imagine to avoid any misuse, people could take it voluntarily at first. It could be grounds for early release from prison, for example.
Also, I don’t think I mentioned this in the first discussion. But I also would imagine some medicines would only treat excessive violent tendencies. For example, antibiotics, despite their name, don’t kill all life. They just zone in on certain ones. Maybe drug therapy could be fine tuned to just help the most severe cases.
Violence isn’t an illness, it is a survival adaptation. Killing plants and animals and eating them is an effective way to survive. Rape is usually more effective than seduction for having children. Theft is more effective than working for something (hence the entire food chain is based on theft. Plants do the work of creating complex organic molecules, then animals eat them. Then other animals eat those animals. Then microbes eat all of us. Let someone else do the work of anabolism and just steal their products). Those who do not use violence to protect their own biological safety or the safety and integrity of their family units, friends and social units will see themselves go extinct.
So violence is innate in biological existence because trampling and stealing from others works. The ‘sickness’ violence you refer to is probably criminal violence, which is only sick because people are using violence against their own social unit, which is counterproductive to the survival of the group as a whole. Basically its like comparing an autoimmune disease (where the cells in your body attack each other) to an immune response to the flu (where the cells in your body attack an invading foreign agent).
I can’t kidnap someone, but if I do then the police can kidnap me by putting me in jail. So violence isn’t necessarily considered wrong unless it threatens the social unit we are all dependent on for survival, information and defense.
Having said that, the democratic peace theory has found that liberal democracies rarely go to war with each other, if at all. They also seem to have less domestic purges. So promoting liberal democracy globally is a good way to lessen war and oppression.
If they could invent a drug that increased people’s capabilities for empathy, that would be interesting. A true anti-violence drug would probably do something like that, because it is near impossible to commit cruelty against those you empathize with. You have to dehumanize your victims before you can hurt them. You have to view them as an ‘it’ instead of a ‘you’. The more you humanize and empathize with others, the harder it will be to intentionally (or even unintentionally) inflict pain on them w/o suffering from severe pain and guilt yourself.
As to how to increase empathy, compassion meditation has been shown to increase activity in certain parts of the brain like the insula or temporal parietal juncture.
As neuroscience advances, we may not have a drug, but we may have some sort of transcranial magnetic stimulation device which, when combined with neuroplasticity drugs and cognitive exercises could dramatically increase the empathy levels of people and as a result make it near impossible for them to engage in violence against others.
Violence manifests on many levels other than “evil”. Super evil people may be sick, which may lead to violence, but you can’t really call violence the illness.
They do treat violence with drugs, and in some places castration. And some violent people are tame on illegal drugs or alcohol.
Also, there’s pre-frontal lobotomies.
Okay then, what about Oxytocin? (See here, here and here too.) Think about it. What if in some setting with the potential for alot of violence, say a maximum security prison, everyone was given Oxytocin?
I noticed many of the posts to my OP were somewhat negative. So I thought I would add this new scientific development to the thread. Yeah, I think most “evil” people’s problem is that they lack empathy for their victims. Why not just correct the problem at its source:)?
My main concern would be ensuring that it is not used against anyone that isn’t a convicted criminal without their permission. Since it works as an aerosol, it seems like a perfect weapon for a con-artist to use to soften up potential marks.
Your premise is insane. People are monkeys with car keys. Violence is wired into us as an acceptable (and sometimes necessary) response in various scenarios. Pointless, sociopathic, or criminal violence can be dysfunctional, but it is generally a manifestation of some dysfunction not the dysfunction itself.
Your non-belief in retribution is amusing but impractical. The threat of retribution, immediate or delayed, one on one, or mediated through empowered authorities is what keeps a good chunk of the population in line, especially younger (or even older) people who are not fully or properly socialized. Your conflation of violence=evil is leading you to make foolish assumptions about the nature of humanity. Violence, in and of itself, is no more evil than eating or breathing.
You’re falling into the same trap as a lot of people. We are not logical beings who happen to have emotions. We are emotional beings who discovered logic to try and control our emotional urges.
That said, there is something for the theory that at least some sample of violent criminals do have a mental problem. If a medicine or therapy can be devised to fix this, we would be remiss not to use it. Rehabilitation is really the best goal, as it is much more in line with our morality (or ethics. I get those two mixed up.)