Studiare la violenza per una cultura di pace

The Seville Statement is briefly analysed. It is pointed out that in this presentation the word violence is used as a synonym of aggressiveness and aggression, namely as a term which involves the use of both physical and psychological force. What is more, violence is not only a behaviour but also an attitude or a thought tout court. A competitive life pattern, which now prevails in our societies, strengthens people's feelings of insecurity and leads them to address these feelings through aggressiveness. In most cases people consider their neighbor a rival, a competitor, an enemy, who tries to overpower them and whom, consequently, in self-defense, in their turn they try to overpower. One of the worst consequences of a competitive life pattern is that most people erroneously believe that individuation can only be developed through contraposition and competition, and not, for example, through cooperation. Human beings usually perpetrate violence against weaker individuals, namely against those individuals who occupy the lowest rungs of the social ladder. Among these individuals are, for example, the poor, the elderly, women, children, and animals. Human beings are born with a tendency towards aggression but also towards cooperation and altruism. Education must develop the latter tendency to the utmost.