Ask yourself, how much violence do you see in a day? This includes videos online, scenes in television, video games, and whatever you may see in person. Better yet, ask yourself: how often is the topic of violence talked about? Now, take away everything you see on a screen, and ask yourself the same question. The time affiliated with violence has drawn down substantially, hasn’t it?

Violence is something that has always been a part of most lives, whether directly or indirectly. It lives in neighborhoods—a bully at school, problems at home, and of course, people in their family joining the military. Violence is, regrettably, a seemingly inescapable human vice. However, if you are reading this article, you are obviously a civilized individual, likely trying to avoid violence as often as possible. In a perfect world, there would be none at all.  

I’m sure when television or even radio was first invented, the last thing the creators had in mind was that it would ultimately show acts of violence in such abundance as it does today. Not only is it shown continuously, it has been glorified to the extent that people, especially impressionable teens, find their first course of action when a fight breaks out is to record it and show it to everybody they can. Not only that, they also post it online in hopes that the entire world notices it, purely for entertainment. I can’t tell you where the idea of watching people beat each other half to death is fun began, but I can tell you where it’s led. Violence being seen as a positive has not only seeped into the minds of the younger generation, it has gone so far that the leading Republican candidate Donald Trump openly endorses violence at his rallies and has expressed a desire to personally punch a person who didn’t agree with him, amongst other threats.  

The most shocking part of this is not that the possible future president is enthralled by violence, it is the sheer number of supporters he has gained exactly because of his attraction to it. In the past, had a candidate made even a passing remark about personally using violence, they could consider their chance of election gone. But today, the exact opposite has happened. The more he talks about violence, the more the media displays his actions. In turn, his ideas get to more people, who support anything he says because, like them, he has an affection for violence.