The technique of violence

Violence 101 – Part five of six
In the last four articles …
The last four articles have described the Cycle of Violence, including its sweet honeymoon phase, its three categories (affective, organizational/professional and social), its four forms (psychological, physical, sexual and financial), as well as the five principles of this scourge that is constructed by society, but chosen by all violent people. Both the act of “gift-wrapping” violence and a strong sense of superiority on the part of the aggressor stokes a drama-triangle relationship of persecutor, victim and saviour. You also got to know several Yukon support resources such as the Les EssentiElles shelter (668-2636) and the Kids Help Phone (1-800-668-6868).
 
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Technique

The word technique is used here in the sense that, systematically applied, these concepts give desired results or work well, or even very well, for a violent person, to the detriment of all victims.

These means, the how, seek to confuse facts and create chaos to the point that sane humans cannot properly judge them … even judges!1 Now that’s efficiency. It is like food poisoning, but in this case the poison affects healthy thinking and judgment, and intelligence is relegated to the 10th basement floor of an enormous building under deconstruction.

This is the principle of the “Invisible Gorilla” applied through day-to-day illusions and deformed [beliefs] that influence our lives. With these techniques, we no longer see the gorilla that appears at a basketball game (C. Chabris, D. Simons, 1999)2 since everyone is focused on the violent explosions that now regularly appear the world over. And although Yukon is absolutely not excluded from this scourge, would there be fewer violent incidents here without investigative journalism of the sort found in Québec?

The simple goal of these techniques is that violence (i) becomes and then (ii) remains a banal fact that is endorsed and legitimate (iii) to the point of going unpunished. This goal is reached once we observe one or more victims completely submitted to the aggressor, both mentally and physically. For example, a romantic partner who alleges conjugal violence could later seek to minimize and protect their aggressor.

The secondary goal of these “techniques” is to look good in the eyes of everyone else. It’s the old stereotype of the benevolent dictator who cares about their people. It’s the image of the lover who adores their spouse and their child (the victims) more than anything in the world … until their murder. Like a winning recipe, there can be mixed and rebinding of these means such as the “rose-coloured glasses” technique, “boiling frog” syndrome, etc.

Now, in increasing order of cowardice, here are the means to create, develop, stoke and propagate violence that is used by every aggressor, from the most solitary to the most powerful. Associating this irrational behaviour, like “2+2=3” to well-known public figures is not forbidden. Humour is an excellent way to destabilize any aggressor who believes they are in a position of power and control over their victim(s).

The zero-effort technique is an obsession found in every aggressor, no matter who or where they are. The status quo, as it has always been, from generation to generation, is much easier to maintain than working to adapt to anything. It’s a clear-cut sign of recidivism. And it’s evidently a concrete sign of pride, the poison that muffles common sense in the human intellect.

“Power is what Pride really enjoys … For Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense … The real black, diabolical pride comes when you look down on others so much that you do not care what they think of you …” (Clive Staples LEWIS, Mere Christianity, NY, 1943)

At the individual level, the lack of introspection is easier than making the least effort to get informed, ask questions and find answers on one’s own. Recognizing and accepting personal shortcomings, and, above all, making ongoing efforts to grow are not habits found in aggressors who do not take charge of themselves. Without that effort, nobody will ever be able to do anything to help!

Here are a few examples. “Zero effort” is enough to create “orbiting” that consists of suddenly ignoring the phone calls, text messages and other messages from a victim while they enter an “orbit” around the rejected person and like their Facebook photos (a frequent occurrence among adolescents).

More seriously, “ghosting” a victim might take place, which consists of abruptly cutting off all contact and disappearing into the abyss. Talk it over with the parents of a missing child who do not know if they are still alive. Talk it over with grandparents whose children eradicated them from the pleasure of watching their grandchild grow up. Hell on Earth exists…

Lying, stealing, scaring potential victims and committing fraud is much easier than working to take charge of one’s own existence.

Another example is putting one’s daily energy into time, words and especially repeated acts to embed radical extremist ideology on the internet, instead of working to identify and solve professional, personal, affective and/or social malaise.

In conclusion, the phenomenon of violence is no longer a secret to you, including its cycle and characteristics, such as control and a total lack of effort: those are strong incentives for all aggressors. Today, I discussed one of 20 techniques by which violence becomes banal, endorsed, legitimized and eventually unpunished: the “dream” of every aggressor. 

Write to me if you are interested in any of these means in particular, and in future articles I will describe the violent techniques that generate the greatest interest from you.

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Means to propagate violence

1. The “zero-effort” technique
2. Rose-coloured glasses
3. The “laissez-faire”
4. Omission
5. Isolation
6. Negation
7. Projection
8. Indignation
9. The “always-or-never” technique
10. The paradox of the liar
11. Detachment
12. The “boiling frog”
13. “Fake news” (falsehoods)
14. Demonization
15. The gift-wrap wow!
16. Dissimulation (taqiya)
17. Workplace mobbing / Schoolyard bullying
18. Impunity3
19. Cargo cults
20. Anonymity

FOOTNOTES

1. In Yukon and in Québec, there are many court rulings handing down a lighter sentence to a violent man because he was in an inebriated or intoxicated state. Question: Who decided to drink and become drunk before he became drunk and before he committed a violent act? We are not drunk 24 hours a day …
2. The Invisible Gorilla is a book describing six commonplace illusions that profoundly influence our lives: those affecting our attention, memory, confidence, knowledge, causal awareness and potential. These are deformed beliefs regarding our own minds that are not only false, but also bad to the point of being dangerous.
3. Impunity in the form of repeated and organized events. When the abuses are well-aligned, in order from the smallest to the largest, well-connected (like a spiderweb), the unpunished abuses are diffused in a perpetual loop, like a CNN news item, until it creates “the perfect storm.” Like in England, France and Belgium, with false Muslims: true fundamentalists who orient their lives toward violence without any effort at all.
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