Violence Behaves Like a Bad Smell

Violence, like many other atrocities, behaves like a bad smell.

What do I mean?

Well, if I walk into a room and there is a bad smell, my nose sends the info to my brain and my brain says to me, "Oh my, what is that horrible smell???"

Then, within a few seconds, I am no longer affected by the smell.

But that is not because the smell has gone away!

The physiological explanation for this is that once your brain has decided, "Yup, bad smell, but not dangerous to me," it realizes that there is no point in reminding you that there is a bad smell.

It is still processing the smells around for change, but if there is no change, you are not going to be reminded about it.

I believe that violence is very much like that.

We see it happen. We hear about it. We yell out "that's horrible! That should never happen!" And maybe we actually commit ourselves to doing something about it.

We see it happen. We hear about it. We yell out "that's horrible! That should never happen!" And maybe we actually commit ourselves to doing something about it.

Then we go back to our lives. We no longer smell the bad smell. Mainly, because it is not a direct danger to us, and we have to manage our daily lives as usual, and that takes resources.

In order to find that bad smell, and get rid of it, even if it isn't dangerous to us, means we need to keep sniffing, and looking, and getting rid of everything that could be causing that bad smell so that we know that it is gone forever.

That takes fortitude, conviction, and caring. So, even if it isn't something that threatens you directly, don't stop sniffing.

Together, we can root out the causes of all bad smells.