The Crazy Ape by Albert Szent-Györgyi

Author:Albert Szent-Györgyi [Szent-Györgyi, Albert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497675902
Publisher: Philosophical Library/Open Road
Published: 2012-03-28T04:00:00+00:00

XI. ON VIOLENCE

The inclination of many of our people to violence is one of the main symptoms of the present world crisis. Violence is a terrible nuisance and we do not know how to deal with it. When President Johnson commissioned a conference to find out the reasons for the sharp upswing in violence in the U.S., it was typical of the hypocrisy of our age that none of the members of that conference was able to see that the violence of our times may have something to do with Vietnam, where we have been busily occupied with the killing and maiming of half a million people. Though Vietnam is the main focus of our putrefaction, I do not think it is the only source of violence. We have gone through two world wars and have watched Hitler and Stalin each exterminate countless millions of innocent people. Violence seems to be a symptom of the imbalance of our age; we have only added one more crime to the major organized crimes of our age by the Vietnam war.

There are two kinds of violence: active and passive. Active violence is the violence of people who break windows or skulls. Passive violence is the violence of those who would yield to nothing but active violence. The two kinds of violence are most intimately connected: it is passive violence which begets active violence, leaving no other way open.

President Johnson never broke a skull or a window, so according to the usual standards he was not violent. But if we extend the idea of violence to passive violence, then he must be classed with the most violent figures of political history. When 30,000 people marched on Washington to bring their wishes before him, he did not even ask what they had on their minds and received none of their leaders. For 30,000 people to leave their homes and march to Washington in slush and rain would indicate some very strong feelings of outrage on the part of a significant portion of our citizenry. The first duty of any president is to listen to his people. The 30,000 marchers were obviously only a very small fraction of the people who shared their feelings. The only acknowledgment President Johnson gave them was his insistence that they march in order and avoid violence. For so long as they respected this edict, they could march until doomsday. He began to pay attention to them only when they tried to break into the Pentagon, that is, resorted to active violence. It was Johnson’s passive violence which provoked their active violence. President Nixon went even further, declaring well in advance that the marchers would not make the slightest difference to him. Then he barricaded himself inside the White House.

Violence on university campuses is of special significance. The way to prevent it is to avoid passive violence, which means that our authorities must listen to the protests of those they supervise with sympathy and human understanding. Students’ demands may often seem excessive and ill thought-out; nevertheless, they have very deep roots.

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