Could you commit a dreadful crime? apparantly Yes

perseus

perseus

Active member
I have always thought that most of us given the right conditioning and stimuli could participate in the sort of crimes associated with Nazi atrocities. However, it seems that we have an inherent disposition for violence and even enjoy it, children are born violent. In fact early conditioning is necessary to avoid psychopathic tendencies from an early age. Moreover, stress or accident can release these primeval urges bypassing the neurological safety barriers formed during childhood. For those who can see it there is an associated film with this

Is it possible that you, or your mother or daughter or son, could ever be driven to commit a dreadful crime? Do we have that level of violence in ourselves? The answer is yes.

Contrary to popular belief, we are born violent. Until the age of three, our impulses run riot. There is no stopping the urges which come from the emotional centre in our brains.

But as we grow up, we start to develop the part of the brain that allows us to control our aggression - the pre-frontal cortex. Yet crucially, how well this control mechanism works depends on our experiences.

Being taught to share and take turns rather than resolve conflict with violence actually changes the physical structure of the brain and therefore makes us less aggressive....

Not only are we born violent, we are also chemically programmed to love it. Inside the brain a pleasure-inducing chemical called dopamine is released when we fight.....

Neuro-psychology expert Prof Charles Golden says we can all easily lose control and commit an extreme act of violence. All we need is for there to be a breakdown in the pre-frontal cortex and that can be triggered by anything from a car accident or repeated blows to the head in a game of rugby.

In fact, physical injury is not the only way to cause the cortex to shut down. Depression, alcohol abuse, drugs, lack of sleep and even the natural ageing process can all injure our violence controls.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8043688.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00kk4bz/Horizon_How_Violent_Are_You/
 
Yeah this is pretty basic stuff you learn in psychology. People are suseptable to language, uniforms... in essence, symbols of power and authority.
It's the very thing that has kept artists in business. It's funny because artists are usually the ones who love to talk about subverting the system yet their patrons are those who are on the upper strata of societies. Maybe they talk about fighting the system because of a sense of guilt.
 
Unfortunatly events in life, and really life itself can drive anyone to commit all sorts of crime........am not, an exception...we're all in it together..
 
perseus said:
Not only are we born violent, we are also chemically programmed to love it. Inside the brain a pleasure-inducing chemical called dopamine is released when we fight.....
Click to expand...


Whoa! It seems I have only 20% dopamine left, max. What conclusion is to be drawn? I must check the link out as soon as I have time.
 
I wouldn't be surprised.
What kind of movie gets most watchers? Action or war flicks.
What grabs the headlines on the news? Wars and disasters.
 
Not surprising. I remember an article in Scientific American Mind a year or two ago that said revenge activates the same parts of the pleasure center as sex in men. It makes sense; it must have been pretty damn violent surviving as a human before we got more civilized. Still a lot of horrible stuff going on today though, so who can say how much we've actually progressed.
 
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