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Jul. 6th, 2014 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikSo, something that I've mulling over for a bit -
Despite the general freaking out about violence, it appears that developed societies are overall getting less violent and have been for some time. There also has been an increase in the expectation that children will be protected, both generically from harm and from many of the rigors of adult life.
On the flip side, we know (and I'm thinking about much of the work that has been done with child soldiers) that people who have been raised in very violent and chaotic circumstances are greatly affected by these experiences, even if what they went through was shared by many others and to some degree normalized at the time.
I'm not certain that everyone isn't traumatized now, depending on how fine you slice it. But I notice that a lot of pseudo-historical fiction (I include pseudo historical speculative fiction) seems to project modern ideas of family structure, childhood and trauma... and yet, really, as far as I can tell an awful lot of violence and trauma was pretty much common and shared experiences in those societies.
So... what does a society where trauma of some degree is an expected part of the experience look like?
And maybe more to the point, what does a society where this is not the case look like?
(And how does this reflect on our culture obsession with violence, for that matter. As an aside, I'm looking at this from the perspective that non-violence isn't about ignorance of avoidance of violence* but the process of seeking better solutions, a process in which understanding violence can be pretty helpful.)
* "Oh, let's be ignorant and helpless, that will fix everything!" Bah. The Morlock / Eloi dichotomy can go die in a fire. Or perhaps perish after a very long time out. Y'know. Something.
Despite the general freaking out about violence, it appears that developed societies are overall getting less violent and have been for some time. There also has been an increase in the expectation that children will be protected, both generically from harm and from many of the rigors of adult life.
On the flip side, we know (and I'm thinking about much of the work that has been done with child soldiers) that people who have been raised in very violent and chaotic circumstances are greatly affected by these experiences, even if what they went through was shared by many others and to some degree normalized at the time.
I'm not certain that everyone isn't traumatized now, depending on how fine you slice it. But I notice that a lot of pseudo-historical fiction (I include pseudo historical speculative fiction) seems to project modern ideas of family structure, childhood and trauma... and yet, really, as far as I can tell an awful lot of violence and trauma was pretty much common and shared experiences in those societies.
So... what does a society where trauma of some degree is an expected part of the experience look like?
And maybe more to the point, what does a society where this is not the case look like?
(And how does this reflect on our culture obsession with violence, for that matter. As an aside, I'm looking at this from the perspective that non-violence isn't about ignorance of avoidance of violence* but the process of seeking better solutions, a process in which understanding violence can be pretty helpful.)
* "Oh, let's be ignorant and helpless, that will fix everything!" Bah. The Morlock / Eloi dichotomy can go die in a fire. Or perhaps perish after a very long time out. Y'know. Something.
