Educated in violence

We have just passed the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. International days for anything run the risk of becoming just another institutional commemoration, in which the objective to be protected is outsourced to institutions, which are already busy hanging the banner, while we go about our daily lives. But if no violence can be reduced to the routine of the official calendar, violence against women can be even less so, because it is tantamount to saying violence against half of humanity

This means that millions of people around the world are growing up every day, educated in violence. If we broaden our perspective—because violence is a single entity (the violence of the strongest) presented in multiple forms, such as war, the concentration of wealth, the denial of human rights and basic material security—an entire generation is growing up educated in violence, that is, in cruelty as the habitual way of relating to one another. News broadcasts are often a good collection of examples, with their daily displays of destruction and the crude and obscene language of power.

The first devastating effect of this violence, whether explicit or latent, is the immunization against its existence, which leads to living life under the false premise that this is just the way things are and that there is nothing to be done beyond seeking refuge.

This is not true, of course. Look at people when they come together to celebrate, to demand, to share, and to collaborate, and look at children when they discover there is more to the world. Raised in violence, we have unlearned how to educate for peace, justice, and fraternity, let alone spirituality. As long as these words sound naive (as they do now), we will continue to educate for violence.