An Alphabet Of Things I Don’t Like: V

~ beetleypete

Violence.

I was brought up in a tough district of South London. It wasn’t long before I saw my first real fights, once I started at Secondary School. As an observer, I soon concluded that people who settled arguments with their fists usually did so because they did not have the intelligence or vocabulary to argue or debate their way out of a confrontation. Many of those same people were also natural bullies; emboldened by their physical size, or fighting ability. They enjoyed the reputation that came with inflicting injury on others.

Later on, I witnessed fighting in pubs, where alcohol played its part of course. This was also more dangerous, as pubs provided weapons like chairs or glasses to potentially do more damage.

In adult life, I worked for a long time as an EMT. Victims of violence became part of my everyday life as I attended to them, and on more than a few occasions, I was also attacked and injured by violent or drunk patients.

Sadly, it is nothing new. From the tavern brawls in Roman times, to the football hooligans of the 21st century, so many arguments have ended in violence. And it is not just men, believe me. Females can also resort to violence at times, and some are also physical bullies.

It would be nice to live in a world where random violence was no longer a fact of life. But I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

43 thoughts on “An Alphabet Of Things I Don’t Like: V”

  3. I don’t see any signs of it stopping anytime soon it seems violence is part of many cultures now and life comes cheap to many…We can all agree it is down to certain triggers but what about the ones who just do it…no apparent traumas in their lives or drink, drugs or alcohol they just do it and to me, they are the scariest…

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  9. Terrible indeed, Pete. Professionally, I saw people who engaged in violence due to poor mental state, but in many cases alcohol and other substances also played a part. I agree with everybody’s comments. Some people never grow out of it, and I can’t see it ending any time soon, but we can always hope.

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  12. Early man needed the ‘fight or flight’ attitude and we have never lost it. I often wonder about rugby. It looks so close to violence but it is controlled within rules. We do need to have the instinct to defend ourselves against threats but uncontrolled violence is due to problems of the mind and experience. We cannot help but copy what we see and if we have brutal parents or associates we think it normal to be brutal. I also hate the way violence is depicted in our films and soaps.If you see it in your living room it seems OK.But then young people today don’t watch TV so the recent news item objecting to people being violent to ambulance staff won’t have got through to them. We also have a number of people who think they will be rewarded eventually for violence and so do not treasure life.On top of that drink and drugs change folk. Oh for peace and goodwill!

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        1. They sometimes complained they had been waiting too long for the ambulance, so solved that by attacking you, and getting themselves arrested. Then we had to still take them to hospital, but they were with a cop, and in handcuffs. Other occasions involved drunks who wanted to tell you how to treat their friends or relatives, or just plain crazy people who seemed to call 999 with the sole purpose of attacking whoever turned up. It didn’t used to get so much publicity, but always happened right from the time I started.

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