Can a Culture of Violence Sustain Peaceful Democracy?

Abstract

Can a Culture of Violence Sustain Peaceful Democracy?

Of course, if one is flexible enough with definitions.

That gets harder the more idyllic one wants the “peaceful democracy” to be. Most democracies are not all that peaceful now, and some are among the most violent nations on earth.

Like, why dodge the obvious, my dear home United States of America. We hold records.

We have been involved in more wars and lethal operations in more other countries than any other nation on earth over the last few decades, especially if one includes smaller targets in places like Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan and other countries who have lost one snatched or snuffed.

We incarcerate more of our own people than anyone else in the world, by rate and absolutely. Our war on drugs extends to tens of thousands dying in countries like Mexico and Columbia, and to hundreds of thousands in America with near-life sentences for petty crimes.

We have more guns per capita than any other nation on earth bar none, and are damn proud of it polls generally show, despite enduring one of the highest murder rates as well.

And our mass murderers, about 20 each year, have often been entertained and “educated” by some of the most ruthless video games ever created anywhere. America holds many records!

So if you include the USA in the set of “peaceful democracies” then you would have to conclude that it is certainly possible to sustain a “peaceful democracy” with a pretty violent culture by most observers’ assessments. Some of our most ardent weapons enthusiasts, like the NRA, say that we sustain our peaceful democracy because of extensive gun ownership, etc. Their critics say we are on a path to perdition, but so far the Pentagon still owns the path.

There are surely more peaceful democracies on earth today, no doubt, and may God Bless every one of them. Most of them have far more restricted access to guns, smaller and less harsh prisons, less militaristic foreign policies, and dramatically lower rates of death by violence. Some examples: Japan, Finland, Costa Rica, South Korea, Singapore and most of Europe. And there are police-states that rigorously repress both free speech and private ownership of weapons.

If one expects perfection in definitions, however, you can be pretty confident that no perfectly peaceful democracies exist. Most true pacifists got run out of their ancestral lands long ago, like the Dalai Lama, so almost every government on earth maintains an army to maintain borders. Rare exceptions like Costa Rica rely on the prudence of neighbors too poor to invade.

More common are countries built with guns, like China, Russia, the USA and Canada, all successful if variably violent nations today. Remember, North Americans were all Indians 550 years ago. Native populations may have been more or less peaceful, a very mixed record, but that mattered less than their inability to stop invaders with better weapons when civilizations clashed.

This is just an opinion not a recommendation, and I welcome any others most sincerely.

Michael Andregg, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, Dec. 28, 2012, for the ISCSC 2013 newsletter