Where is the line between a desire to do harm, imagined harm and harm done? It's all pretty close on an ethical level.
I don't get what that has to do with my post, sorry
Regardless, somebody could argue that there is a large difference between harm and imagined harm, and harm and a desire to harm. The actual harm results in actual pain, while a desire to do harm doesn't necessarily. I think its in the same category as distinguishing between hallucinations and real objects.
As for the teenage angst thing, I think there's a tremendous difference between pretending to be a hard motherfucker for attention, and talking about it. I'm sure you wouldn't say the same thing to a professional fighter, so why are we being angsty?
There isn't such a big difference. People who pretend to be hard motherfuckers are just as insecure as people who are hard motherfuckers, its just a question of effort put into training and practice. And of course professional fighters are angsty! Why would somebody spend so much time practising how to hurt people if they weren't damaged themselves?
You really don't think physical conflict has been a theme throughout history? We just suddenly developed our violent instincts? I mean, even if you were to use the animal world as a comparison, there are primates that kill each other with spears. We're not really that much more evolved, so it's not hard to extrapolate that we've always been violent.
No I don't. And I don't think there is such a thing as a violent instinct, I think its socially trained and developed.
I didn't mean that people have ever not been violent to each other - its just not an important part of history. Nor is it a theme. Imagine the hundreds of thousands of years of human history. Each of those years can be divided into our current months and days, and then into hours and minutes. Considering that amount of time, I find it very hard to believe that anywhere near a significant amount of it was spent in physical conflict. Its really a very minor activity, compared to sleeping, eating, farming, building things, making things, looking after animals, talking, writing, telling stories, looking after children, thinking, playing, and a billion other activities and occupations that don't involve physical violence at all.
Its just that angsty teens blow it out of proportion and spend an inordinate amount of time focused on the subject
Oh, and sorry for hijacking the picture thread, but its in the spam section, so meh.