Why Do Humans Kill Humans?
I was on my lunch break when I found out about the downing of Malaysia flight MH-17 over Ukraine last week. I and one of my co-workers had mistakenly thought at first they were reporting news about MH-370, the flight that disappeared several months ago. Hearing that the plane was shot down, my co-worker asked the question, "why do humans kill other humans".
It was a rhetorical question of course, and neither of us had an answer. We do, but it's not exactly one that solves anything.
It wasn't until I got home that I found out that the same day Israel had begun an incursion into Palestine, something everyone knew was likely imminent given the events of the last few days and weeks. It's hard to know if to really call it a new war since it seems to be the continuation of a conflict that's never really seen an end in the first place.
I enjoy anime for the precise reason that it isn't reality. Despite the way in which there are many series that raise the question of why people kill other people, why we fight wars, anime is eminently better at raising pertinent questions than it is at providing credible answers. So to look to anime for an answer is wishful thinking. After all, the writers are no more gifted in their capacity to answer these questions than anyone else. They are, after all, humans like the rest of us. They can put forth ideas, but those ideas do not necessarily hold any greater credibility or enlightenment than anyone else's opinion on the matter. That's why the Gundam franchise has no clean end to it. It is built on the precept of the hero wanting to end the fighting for good. But they never do, because we don't know how to.
But if one would like to glimpse a reason for why the fighting doesn't stop, one only need look at the comment section of any anime. There you will usually find people expressing their likes, dislikes, immediate feelings, regarding whichever show it is they've watched. Most anime nowadays will depict some conflict in some form or fashion, be it caste in a serious light like a Gundam series, or this season's Aldnoah.Zero, or a lighthearted romantic comedy. Most of the time in these anime the depicted conflict of each episode or across the season ends with the protagonist of the story defeating the antagonist in some genial way. They beat them up a bit, the antagonist is left powerless, then everyone walks away and the story is over.
If you read the comments, you will see many people decrying the antagonist not being killed. I'm not speaking of hyperbole, or some off-the-cuff reactions of individuals who don't really mean what they say. I mean people who will steadfastly defend their stance that the antagonist needs to die.
Now, you might be thinking now that such a thing doesn't matter for much. People talking up about stuff relating to an animated character, what does mean for anything? Unfortunately this tends to filter into an individual's world view. They reflect their personal beliefs onto the way events transpire in their entertainment. If they see someone who doesn't get the punishment they think they deserved in an anime, or a game, or a book, or a movie, that generally reflects some alignment with the belief that in real life things should be that way too.
I'm not arguing it's a 1:1 correlation. Nor do I make the assertion that every person who writes something like that on a comment section or in a forum really means it. But if even 10% of the people who write such things really think that way, you have for yourself there the makings of a population that sees killing as an answer. That person is a thief, he should just die. That person ruined my life or someone else's life, they should die.
I would note that while many want to blame the media depictions of conflict and violence, it should be noted that many, if not most, stories across the gamut tend to tell stories where the protagonist refuses to become a killer. It is the audience that usually decries this, calling the protagonists weaklings, cowards, idiots, and so on. There is something in some human beings that refuses the very notion of forgiveness in all but the rarest of circumstances. For a species that is supposedly so socially centered, so dependent on social connections and interactions, we tend to easily be exceedingly divisive and reject social reunification so easily.
Why do humans kill humans? Maybe we're not quite the social creatures we like to think we are.
It was a rhetorical question of course, and neither of us had an answer. We do, but it's not exactly one that solves anything.
It wasn't until I got home that I found out that the same day Israel had begun an incursion into Palestine, something everyone knew was likely imminent given the events of the last few days and weeks. It's hard to know if to really call it a new war since it seems to be the continuation of a conflict that's never really seen an end in the first place.
I enjoy anime for the precise reason that it isn't reality. Despite the way in which there are many series that raise the question of why people kill other people, why we fight wars, anime is eminently better at raising pertinent questions than it is at providing credible answers. So to look to anime for an answer is wishful thinking. After all, the writers are no more gifted in their capacity to answer these questions than anyone else. They are, after all, humans like the rest of us. They can put forth ideas, but those ideas do not necessarily hold any greater credibility or enlightenment than anyone else's opinion on the matter. That's why the Gundam franchise has no clean end to it. It is built on the precept of the hero wanting to end the fighting for good. But they never do, because we don't know how to.
But if one would like to glimpse a reason for why the fighting doesn't stop, one only need look at the comment section of any anime. There you will usually find people expressing their likes, dislikes, immediate feelings, regarding whichever show it is they've watched. Most anime nowadays will depict some conflict in some form or fashion, be it caste in a serious light like a Gundam series, or this season's Aldnoah.Zero, or a lighthearted romantic comedy. Most of the time in these anime the depicted conflict of each episode or across the season ends with the protagonist of the story defeating the antagonist in some genial way. They beat them up a bit, the antagonist is left powerless, then everyone walks away and the story is over.
If you read the comments, you will see many people decrying the antagonist not being killed. I'm not speaking of hyperbole, or some off-the-cuff reactions of individuals who don't really mean what they say. I mean people who will steadfastly defend their stance that the antagonist needs to die.
Now, you might be thinking now that such a thing doesn't matter for much. People talking up about stuff relating to an animated character, what does mean for anything? Unfortunately this tends to filter into an individual's world view. They reflect their personal beliefs onto the way events transpire in their entertainment. If they see someone who doesn't get the punishment they think they deserved in an anime, or a game, or a book, or a movie, that generally reflects some alignment with the belief that in real life things should be that way too.
I'm not arguing it's a 1:1 correlation. Nor do I make the assertion that every person who writes something like that on a comment section or in a forum really means it. But if even 10% of the people who write such things really think that way, you have for yourself there the makings of a population that sees killing as an answer. That person is a thief, he should just die. That person ruined my life or someone else's life, they should die.
I would note that while many want to blame the media depictions of conflict and violence, it should be noted that many, if not most, stories across the gamut tend to tell stories where the protagonist refuses to become a killer. It is the audience that usually decries this, calling the protagonists weaklings, cowards, idiots, and so on. There is something in some human beings that refuses the very notion of forgiveness in all but the rarest of circumstances. For a species that is supposedly so socially centered, so dependent on social connections and interactions, we tend to easily be exceedingly divisive and reject social reunification so easily.
Why do humans kill humans? Maybe we're not quite the social creatures we like to think we are.
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