Violence is human nature, and I believe Freud was emphasizing that because no matter what great lengths humanity goes too to prevent violence it simply can't happen. I don't believe that Freud thought that poverty or injustice wasn't the cause of a single war, however I do believe that Freud thought that the violence that naturally occurs in humans was the cause of more (Page 2, Paragraph 3). Even as illogical as it is, violence for its own sake is just what humanity knows, fight now, think later, an unfortunate thought process used by most of the world. It appears that Freud was aware of this and was trying to make all who read this aware as well.
Violence for its own sake is violence without a reason. If someone performs a violent act just for the sake of performing, it is unjustifiable. It is impossible to defend a heinous crime without a reason, for example, if I were to stab Jeremy with a sword and my response to being asked why is "because I felt like it" I would be idiotic. My response wouldn't hold up in a court of a law, in fact I would probably be considered mentally ill. Violence is one of the many pitfalls in the human mind, and without reason it is simply illogical.
So - do you think that violence for its own sake is the cause of war, or do you think it is something else?
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