Bad To The Bone: Are Humans Naturally Aggressive?

Throughout history, mankind’s tendency has been to turn quicker to the sword rather than to a peaceful discussion. War follows civilizations. Some used it to their advantage, like the Romans, Aztecs or other ancient empires, to conquer new lands and people thus gaining greater power. However, the latter part of this world’s history, has been spent attempting to decrease violence. The League of Nations was created following World War I to prevent anymore wars of that destruction. Obviously the League of Nations failed leading to the start of World War II. With the end of the war in 1945, the United Nations arose to keep world peace and have thus somewhat kept to that. So, why then, has the world seemed to have fallen into greater disarray and

Agustin Fuentes says, in his article Bad to the Bone: Are Humans Naturally Aggressive?, “Increased social inequality and more complex political and economic systems seem to correlate with more types of aggression and violence in human societies.” Ironically, those issues with using barbaric and violent ways to oppress groups of people, were fought with more violence. However, there was beginning to be this idea of rising above the primal instinct. People like Muhammad and, later, Martin Luther King Jr arose as peacefully protesters to prove violence wasn’t the only answer to conflict. Violence, while still very much ingrained in nature, had begun to evolve into something of more looked down upon, barbaric action. Although without any change in DNA or the nature of humans, suddenly violence was no longer natural. Society decided it was now the unnatural or diseased state. Robin Fox, in a speech at an international conference, said “We can predict fairly accurately when, in the escalation process, violence will occur. It is a natural, expectable, predictable, inevitable part of the process (Fox pg. 2 para. 2).” The idea that violence is unnatural needs to dissipate. Fox states simply that violence is very natural. As stated before, it was used in earlier ancestors to keep their race alive. Having the urge to punch someone or stab something is completely natural. Should those actions always be acted upon? Not necessarily. All Fox is stating is that the feeling or urge of aggression is one as natural as happiness or sadness (para. 4). Fox later stated “Whether we like violence or not is not the question here (Fox pg. 2 para. 2).” It is more about understanding the feeling. Violence is not benedictional, but it is part of human