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From: ciaraldi@rochester.UUCP (Mike Ciaraldi)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Rape and Violence
Message-ID: <2688@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29-Oct-84 22:25:29 EST
Article-I.D.: rocheste.2688
Posted: Mon Oct 29 22:25:29 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Nov-84 02:48:04 EST
References: <2070@stolaf.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
Lines: 25

> I will not easily be convinced that anyone ever engages in violence
> merely for the sake of violence.  One violates another person out
> of some sort of distress or need, in an attempt to relieve that
> distress.  It doesn't work, but that is the motivation.
This has been an argument for a long time.
I remember having a long argument with a woman once who maintained that
people want power only for what that power can give them.
I said that some people want power for its own sake, even if they 
get nothing tangible by weilding it.
Just KNOWING that they have the power and can weild it if they want, 
seems to be enough.
Watching a bully walk around the school enjoying the way people
defer to him would seem to indicate that he derives stisfaction
from the intangible results of the power as much as the tangible,
or more, since he may only actually use his power occasionally.

I think that in the same way some people use violence to 
attain ends, but others like violence for its own sake.
I suppose you could call this a "distess or need", but I think
that it is so closely tied to the violence itself that it's
like saying "I like ice skating because I like sliding over slippery
surfaces"--that's the POINT of the skating!

Mike Ciaraldi
sesimo!rochester!ciaraldi