2007 — Eighth Grade Forth Place

Kristi Medeiros, Hawaii.

Compassion or Violence:

Which has a greater impact on society?

Violence, a word commonly associated with pain, revenge, and death, but these are just the negative associations. Violence is like a stone dropped in a pond, this is because one stone can create many ripples in the water. IF there isn't a stone dropped in the water there are no ripples. Stones are dropped every day in the world. More simply violence is answered with violence, and that is what people see. Violence has a greater impact on the world because we see violence in our every day lives.

Violence had the greater impact on society because it is most commonly seen in the media, and the media is constantly broadcasted to society. Violence is seen and heard in music, movies, advertisements, and TV shows. The average American child spends 22 to 28 hours per week watching TV. That means that it was second to sleeping on how children spend their time, which means that at that rate they will spend 7 to 10 years of their lives watching TV. Violence is also heard in music genres such as rock and rap. There are many songs that have violent lyrics that talk about killing people. Movies often have plots that revolve around pain inflicted by others and the revenge of the victim. This often acts as a hook to catch the viewers and get them to watch their shows.

With all of the wars going on in the world, many children are growing up in war zones. Growing up in a war zone often has a negative effect on the children. This shows the children that violence is all right when used to get what you need or want. They see the leaders of their countries going to war for land, power, money, or religious reason so the children think that that is acceptable. A human instinct is to be the best at something or have more. Many leaders of countries are having arguments about land or something else and resorting to violence. This just showing human instincts of wanting to be the best or have more of something, it is just part of our nature. It's all just a big game with other people's lives at stake, just for power.

Besides the media, even in your own community there is violence. There are hundreds of thousands of children being abused in the world. Most of the people that abuse the children are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, so they take out their anger on the children. The children sometimes suffer mental and physical injuries for the rest of their lives. Sometimes the parents have been abused when they were children, and they think that it is all right for them to do that because that's what happened to them. There are many adults, adolescents, and children who are killed from gang violence every day. Some people are killed because they have different views of life and are though to be wrong. Gangs argue about ways of living or ideals and fight those who oppose.

Violence comes to us through media, war, and even our community. Violence is like a pebble when it is dropped in a pond it creates ripples. The pebble is violence and the ripples are the effects of the violence. More stones means more violence. The ripples are the effects. More violence means more violence.

Kids Philosophy Slam Home Page