Orville Taylor | Resetting against violence

No one should control my rage! Whenever one gives me instructions, as regards my dead mother or my spouse; I of course ignore it. Nothing should make me the source of my mother’s bones being bleached. Anger is a terrible teacher and an even worse coach. At a deep visceral level, the suggestion of osculatory activities towards someone’s mother, generally succeeds in ‘chipping’ his head. Few people back down, and even with fist only, there will be a fight.

My preference is to wind my window up, rip fabric and experience the joy of lalochezia.

This is Jamaica, a population of one of the most homicidal peaceful nations. An amazing paradox. On the one hand, we are typically very kind and accommodating. We have one of the lowest crimes against tourists rate in the world, but we will snap over a word or $20 coin. Jamaica is such an enigma, that this is one of the few places in the world, where Jews, Lebanese, Syrians and other Middle Easterners live so seamlessly, that the average Jamaican can hardly tell the difference among them.

Our violence is not inter-ethnic; it is intra-ethnic. Almost all of the acts of violence are between peers, typically young men, who have known each other for years. This includes the domestic. Mostly manifested as male to female, spousal violence, it also involves, female to male, children to parents and grandparents as well as siblings.

Data on household or family violence is generally unreliable, because all kinds of social taboos and image managing actions mask the extent of this phenomenon. Unless one sees action in divorce court or it leads to homicide, much of middle and upper class physical abuse is usually well obscured.

However, in the lower strata, especially in inner-city communities, where the dwellings are tightly packed against each other; everybody knows everybody else’s business.

Violence is endemic in Jamaican society, and it is both learned as well as deeply stored in our DNA. For all of those who want to behave as if the experience of plantation life and slavery have gone, emerging research has indicated that trauma is intergenerational, archived and passed on over time. Horrific things happened to us during enslavement. And the more we try to avoid confronting those experiences and legacies; the more elusive the solution will be.

No, be not mistaken! There is a powerful relationship between DNA and environmental factors. After all, being a sociologist, it would be completely irresponsible and disingenuous if I were to discard the obvious impact of socialisation. However, being mammals, sharing at least 80 per cent of porcine DNA, we can easily understand how a domestic pig becomes a wild boar after just a few months removed from human contact.

All Jamaicans, especially those with strong African content, carry not only the trauma but the warlike propensities of West Africans. It is not a trivial factor that most of us came from the most aggressive West Africans and via some process of natural selection through the middle passage, the strongest survived. And coincidentally, these strongest were the most violent. It is not insignificant that Jamaica had the highest number of slave uprisings anywhere in the world and that the Maroons succeeded in doing what Chief Takye almost did as well.

In handling this natural propensity towards violence, just like the pig, we have to keep the factors of socialisation firmly ingrained in our population. Socialisation is a lifelong process which begins at birth and never ends.

Schools are a critical part of the process, beginning even in preschool. Nevertheless it is primary socialisation, in the family that sets the tone. At home, children must be taught not the simplistic, aversion towards violence, because there are indeed cases where it is not only justifiable but necessary. Rather, the use of force policies, which circumscribe the conduct of the police, licensed firearm holders, the military and in fact any single individual, must become second nature for our children. And they have to learn it very early.

This is not a simple case of saying “Nu tek nobody lick! Lick him back!” Retaliating on the spot or intervening to end an act of violence against a more vulnerable person or one’s own self, is perfectly normative conduct. However, carrying a ‘grievyance’ and exacting revenge later is illegal.

We must teach our children that there is a difference between being peaceful and being weak. A peaceful person always has the capacity to use force but chooses not to, especially if in his opinion, a greater purpose can be served by not reciprocating.

An important lesson to teach our children and grandchildren, is that there is no such thing as absolute power. It is impossible to eliminate everyone who is hostile or in a position to hurt you. The best formula for reducing the proclivity of persons to become one’s enemy, is to be peaceful and respectful of others.

And where there is conflict, use the approved systems of dispute resolution; parents, teachers, grievance procedures or the courts. Any other approach is ‘extra-judicial.’

Nevertheless, when necessary, proportionate force is an important part of one’s defence. Inasmuch as the police, military and holders of firearms are taught the basic rules of engagement, the Jamaican expression about ‘bad a morning and can’t come good a evening,’ is relevant.

Our recent upsurge in school violence is not merely about how poorly schools manage their environment. Improperly socialised children are always going to exhibit antisocial behaviour.

In stemming the pandemic of violence, there is no substitute for entrenching ‘use of force’ training in primary socialisation.

And parents have to be made legally accountable.

Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.