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| Cain Leadeth Abel to Death. Painting by James Tissot. |
In the biblical Book of Genesis, Cain was the first-born son of Adam and Eve, followed by Abel. One day, they both offered a sacrifice to please God. God accepted Abel's sacrifice while rejecting Cain's. Overcome by envy and anger, Cain leads his brother to the fields and there, overcome by jealousy and anger, he kills him. The first son of man is a murderer. History doomed to repeat itself; a sustained loop of tragedy and despair. Violence and hatred. Envy and murder. One could say we were made for this, if nothing else.
Cain, ashamed of his actions, wanders the Earth and builds a city, fathering a line of human descendants beginning with Enoch. Some interpretations of the biblical account consider him to be the originator of envy, anger and violence. It is no surprise then, that we are born of the same blood, craving the blood of our own. The sin of Cain immortalised.
In Robert Louis Stevenson's memorable novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the protagonist Dr Jekyll argues that humans possess a peculiar duality of nature, wherein our human side is in a state of perpetual struggle against the feral half. We are painfully aware of the fact that much of our lives are spent in an effort to mitigate the doings of our primitive self.
Shackled by societal norms and laws galore, we play the part of an ideal being, the beast within tugging away at the chains that bind it. What then, frees the beast that lurks within? What causes the monster to show itself in moments of emotional volatility? We'll take a look at these questions through the lens of rational reasoning.
Shackled by societal norms and laws galore, we play the part of an ideal being, the beast within tugging away at the chains that bind it. What then, frees the beast that lurks within? What causes the monster to show itself in moments of emotional volatility? We'll take a look at these questions through the lens of rational reasoning.
I apologise for borrowing elements mythology and classic literature in an attempt to add some colour to the rather dull argument I am to present henceforth. However, I must admit that a dramatic representation of the matter does contribute positively to the present article.
Then, shunning all metaphorical ambiguity, we shall now move on to the physical origins of aggression.
SCORN: Waking the Demon
Although love is showered upon with praises from the naive, perhaps no emotion has altered the course of human history as much as the thousand forms of human aggression. Hatred, envy, violence, oppression; all manifestations of a single form. However, I shall first be turning my attention to the most common form of aggression; the intent to harm another, the impulsive urge to inflict injury upon another in moments of passion.
When the bestial whims of a man are provoked, a certain impulse to cause harm arises almost autonomously, almost a reflex. The body fuming with rage, lips and limbs quivering; in these moments, one often loses control of their most valuable possession: their rational mind. The rap of a cane on a disobliging student's hand, the key scratch on your car door, the angry neighbour's trash in your backyard. How often have we returned from the clutches of anger to realise our own idiocy? The more superstitious among us would attribute such a loss of character to the devil. But what could be the most reasonable explanation for such an act?
The answer, not too surprising, is again: adrenaline. Adrenaline has evolved as a means to protect an organism from situations that involve an excess of external stimuli. Called the flight, fright or fight hormone, it causes the heartbeat to rise, blood vessels to dilate, and increases blood flow to the muscles. The resulting altered state of the body leads us into an emotive state of being. A heightened physical response to external stimuli makes for an asymmetry between cause and effect, leading us to act in a way that is not representative of us.
From an evolutionary perspective, the described response to an emotionally taxing situation does sound like an obvious advantage. A deer when faced with the roar of a lion, must either fight it, run away or cave in to fear. All responses managed by one little chemical surfing our nerve cells. Coming back to human society, someone who is known to have outbursts of a violent nature would be isolated and ostracised. The fact that anyone who is under the spell of anger cannot possibly maintain a human-like composure makes it all the more ugly in the eyes of reasonable fellow men.
However, I would like to propose that another form of aggression exists, infinitely more putrid than the one described here. Here, I'd like to introduce the terms micro-aggression and macro-aggression. What we have described so far are examples of micro-aggression.
In contrast, macro-aggression includes systematic acts of violence directed towards a different race, culture, gender, etc. While micro-aggression can be reasonably justified as an acting of losing oneself in a moment of passion, how could one possibly explain the countless acts of violence, systematically committed for generations in the name of race, religion or politics?
The unsuspected culprit behind the phenomenon will be unveiled in the next post, where I shall be commenting on the forms of macro-aggression while talking about how love and hate are both two sides of the same coin. In the meanwhile, if you have any comments and feedback, I'd be gladly willing to receive them.
And, oh! Merry Christmas!
When the bestial whims of a man are provoked, a certain impulse to cause harm arises almost autonomously, almost a reflex. The body fuming with rage, lips and limbs quivering; in these moments, one often loses control of their most valuable possession: their rational mind. The rap of a cane on a disobliging student's hand, the key scratch on your car door, the angry neighbour's trash in your backyard. How often have we returned from the clutches of anger to realise our own idiocy? The more superstitious among us would attribute such a loss of character to the devil. But what could be the most reasonable explanation for such an act?
The answer, not too surprising, is again: adrenaline. Adrenaline has evolved as a means to protect an organism from situations that involve an excess of external stimuli. Called the flight, fright or fight hormone, it causes the heartbeat to rise, blood vessels to dilate, and increases blood flow to the muscles. The resulting altered state of the body leads us into an emotive state of being. A heightened physical response to external stimuli makes for an asymmetry between cause and effect, leading us to act in a way that is not representative of us.
From an evolutionary perspective, the described response to an emotionally taxing situation does sound like an obvious advantage. A deer when faced with the roar of a lion, must either fight it, run away or cave in to fear. All responses managed by one little chemical surfing our nerve cells. Coming back to human society, someone who is known to have outbursts of a violent nature would be isolated and ostracised. The fact that anyone who is under the spell of anger cannot possibly maintain a human-like composure makes it all the more ugly in the eyes of reasonable fellow men.
However, I would like to propose that another form of aggression exists, infinitely more putrid than the one described here. Here, I'd like to introduce the terms micro-aggression and macro-aggression. What we have described so far are examples of micro-aggression.
In contrast, macro-aggression includes systematic acts of violence directed towards a different race, culture, gender, etc. While micro-aggression can be reasonably justified as an acting of losing oneself in a moment of passion, how could one possibly explain the countless acts of violence, systematically committed for generations in the name of race, religion or politics?
The unsuspected culprit behind the phenomenon will be unveiled in the next post, where I shall be commenting on the forms of macro-aggression while talking about how love and hate are both two sides of the same coin. In the meanwhile, if you have any comments and feedback, I'd be gladly willing to receive them.
And, oh! Merry Christmas!
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