Waatea 5th Estate – ‘why NZ men are inflicting so much violence on women and children’ Part 1

1. This is such an important discussion to be having. Thanks so much to the panelists for providing a deeper understanding of family violence and ideas on what we need to be doing to help our families and communities. Looking forward to part 2.

2. Homo sapiens is the most aggressive and violent species on this planet, and gained ascendency by eliminating competitive species through violence. The ability to manufacture weapons and use them effectively is what distinguishes homo sapiens from other species.

   The huge distortion that has taken place in recent times has been the great rise in intra-tribal and intra-family violence, which was extremely uncommon in hunter-gatherer societies, and can be attributed to the destruction of social networks following the industrialisation that commenced in England in the 1700s. Destruction of social networks and family networks was exacerbated by excessive mobility, and more recently by globalisation and corporatisation.

   Practically everything we now see is a gross aberration in the grand scheme of things, a short-lived period of insanity facilitated by the invention of fossil-fuel-powered machines; looking at symptoms rather than causes is futile.

   Humans, especially males, are expected to perform roles they are not biologically evolved to perform, and many cannot cope.

   The present globalised-corporatized system is in the process of collapsing via violence -just look at the US or Syria- and by impoverishment of the masses as energy resources deplete, and after it has collapsed normality in human interactions will be restored.

   There will likely be fewer than 1 billion homo sapiens at that stage.

3. This is a brilliant discussion and I am so grateful that it is finally being talked about.

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