(CL) Why Does Politics Turn To Violence?

As defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary online, Politics is "the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy." And anything that comes with being able to influence has power.

Politics turns to violence because politics has to do with power. The power to influence the outcome of events, the opinions of people, and a whole lot more. Then there is also the submission to that power by those without it.

When something involves power, there is also the struggle for this power between parties. That's when the violence comes in, because you have to, usually, use force to obtain power. Not always, but that is frequently the case. So, when dealing with politics, then there is already a high chance for violence.

Then if you take into account the animalistic qualities of the human being, ones that are predisposed to violence, then there is quite a large opportunity for it to rear its ugly head.

An example of which can be seen in the Milgram Experiement, which was mentioned in the book (Edkins and Zehfuss -- Global Politics: A New Introduction 2009), which sought to measure man's willingness to use torture on another human being with the excuse of "following orders." As a human being, we are equipped with self-control, but the fact remains that underneath that, there is something that needs to be controlled. Naturally, many of the men, involved in the experiment were quite liberal with the electric shock that needed to be used, especially when their excuse of being ordered (i.e. the authority figure) was in the room.

Then there's also the instinct of self-preservation, since we are after all, selfish creatures. In which case, the line is "It was either him or me." That one line is the source of so much violence and conflict around the globe. When people are seeking for their own benefit, they tend to disregard the harm inflicted to others, and violence is usually considered.

All these and additional reasons that I haven't mentioned are cases of violence and many involves the struggle for power, seen frequently in politics.