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The myth of the peaceful savage?
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Posted 11 years ago
If we wish to learn how to create a society without violence, the best scientific tool is not RCTs but anthropology. There are entire human societies that are practically violence free, and they achieve this without any formal government or police system. Learn about the Ladakhis. They possess no victim mentality. It is almost impossible to get them angry. They are much happier, resilient and harmonious than we are. In fact, there is an entire website dedicated to identifying peaceful societies and how they accomplish it.
…..because I’m a cynical bastard I had to google Ladakh crime rate and came up with this
http://www.reachladakh.com/archive_details.php?pID=55
So my question is, is this bollocks.
How do they achieve peacefulness? Through wisdom, for wisdom is the solution to life’s problems. None of these societies teach their people the irrational victim beliefs taught in our modern society. They teach people how not to think like victims, as do all major religions, ethical systems, and successful psychotherapeutic approaches, such as cognitive behavior therapy, rational emotive therapy, Adlerian therapy and positive psychology. In fact, all decent self-help books teach people to stop thinking like victims.
So religion has taught people to be peaceful?
Really? I can even think of quite a few examples of wanton violence in Buddhist communities.Finally, new scientist….people less violent than ever.
So, does anyone have any thoughts? Maybe other more peaceful cultures have learned not to bully each other so much, in fact from my limited point of view the author of the first article has started with a seriously flawed misunderstanding of psychology and ended up penning an article with utterly wrong conclusion. Anger/fear is a natural response to stressful situations and it is often very hard to control when the context is that the individual has been left feeling utterly powerless in a situation – either in an acute setting (eg IED attack) or a chronic situation eg systematic bullying. Both these cause PTSD. It would seem to me, from a behavioral standpoint that it’s easier at a conscious level to control one’s own bullying of others than it is to control anger.
I’m no psychologist though, the only thing I have close is one undergrad module in Neuroscience.
Really? I can even think of quite a few examples of wanton violence in Buddhist communities.The topic ‘The myth of the peaceful savage?’ is closed to new replies.
