What is the source of aggression in human beings?

What seems to be the source of aggression in human beings? What can be done to lower the level of aggression in our society?

             At this very moment, hundreds of people are dying because of homicide and violence. Aggression seems to be part of life in human beings. Sadly, violence and aggression are common even to congressmen, who represent the whole nation. So, what is the source of aggression which is inevitable and widespread in our society? If we have any, what are the solutions to alleviate aggression?

             To begin with, people display aggression when their desires are not fulfilled adequately. Human needs and desires are endless. Virtually all of us would like to have social status in our community, perpetual health, unconditional love, and so on. However, only few of us will enjoy these things. Self-control sometimes breaks down which results in aggressions ranging from trivial theft to extensive murders. Imagine a man living in a city slum all his or her entire life. All around him is massive poverty, crime, and violence. His father has been deployed to a nation for war and his mother passed away several years ago. On the other hand, gangster leaders lead a relatively modest life. In such a desperate situation, where basic requirements of life are not met, this person has every incentive to become aggressive in order to escape from abject poverty. This desire-aggression model applies equally to desires for food, love, recognition and so on.

             Furthermore, aggression is often learned from society. In the field of psychology, there is theory called “social learning theory” which focuses on aggression as a learned behavior. It emphasizes the role of the social influences on aggressive behavior. Nowadays, sites of violence and aggression are all over the place. For example, studies have found that network television broadcasts about 10 violent acts per hour on average. And teenagers spend a lot of time playing violent video games. By looking and experiencing these aggressions in their daily lives, people learn aggression through a combination of modeling and reinforcement. What’s more, social collectivism mandates people to learn and display aggression within a group. Collectivism is the principle that places social rights, needs, or benefit above and apart from the individuals who make up a certain society. Although social collectivism often sounds beneficial because it calls for the greater social good, it is actually the main reason for the violence in many societies. For instance, to achieve the utopia of Karl Marx, thousands of people were tortured and slaughtered. Professor Rummel who is the author of "Death by Government," estimates that the people killed were about 70,000,000 in the Soviet Union because of excessive aggression among the members of society.

             At this point, do we have any solutions to alleviate the intensity of aggression? First, I believe training oneself to be tolerable and lenient will definitely help reduce aggression. Benjamin Franklin, who was one of the leading thinkers and fathers of United States, tried to become a good person in character. What he did was to check whether he was following some values such as perseverance in a daily basis. If people follow what Franklin did, it will be much easier to keep in check what he or she is doing wrong. Second, it will be great if people avoid irritating situations by remembering when and where you got angry in the past. In our daily lives, people are often provoked by the same kinds of incidents that happen routinely. However, people repeat the same mistakes over and over again although he or she makes up her mind not to vent anger or aggression. Also, the second solution will be more effective when you reward yourself if you had better control over your temper.

             There are innumerable incidents that will arouse anger. However, the world will be full of resentment if people started to display aggression for every single incident that frustrated him or her. The saying that says, "Aggression breeds more aggression" is true. Violence produces more hate in your opponent and in you. Let us be more tolerant and open-minded people in order to lead a happier life for all of us.