unintentional violence?

roberta c

This email i got off my friend got me thinking..

"More than 7,000 people died within a matter of days when toxic gases leaked from a chemical plant in Bhopal, India on the night of 2/3 December 1984. Over the last 21 years exposure to the toxins has resulted in the deaths of a further 15,000 people as well as chronic and debilitating illnesses for thousands of others for which treatment is largely ineffective”. Do you think the Bhopal disaster a case of unintentional violence by omissions?"

What is violence? Does it matter what it is?

Seloth

I can remember doing this in RE during my JC year.

India is hugly lacking in funds,while the goverment has too cover so many things and do so much to bring busineses into the country it may overlook Health regulations by accident.

I do not see this as Violence,I see this as a preventable disaster.As Violence is the Prevoked or intenional comflict between two or more human beings.

This inncident was not on purpose so no one intended it to happen so I view it as not being violent.

art

Seloth wrote: »

I can remember doing this in RE during my JC year.

India is hugly lacking in funds,while the goverment has too cover so many things and do so much to bring busineses into the country it may overlook Health regulations by accident.

I do not see this as Violence,I see this as a preventable disaster.As Violence is the Prevoked or intenional comflict between two or more human beings.

This inncident was not on purpose so no one intended it to happen so I view it as not being violent.

That is a very narrow definition of the term violence, violence can also mean, for example, abuse of power. Or, for further example, you can do violence to a piece of text.

In the case of the Bhopal disaster, the company was aware that there was a danger inherent in the plant's location but chose that site to "cut costs", thereby defining implicitly their value on the human lives surrounding the plant. The ongoing process of "cost cutting" continued as the company failed to be profitable. This can all be seen as an abuse of the people living in that area and hence a type of "violence".

Does it matter what it is? Terms matter in the way that they give cohesion to a concept. A violence is an example of a person being violated in some degree and consequently should inspire some degree of moral outrage which in turn should inspire action of some kind.

DadaKopf

There's also the term 'structural violence'. A particular order of things may not exhibit obvious signs of violence, but their effects are violent. For example, capitalism which generates inequality and poverty.

RedPlanet

It's also possible to audibly assualt someone, most parents do it to their kids. I think it's a sort of violence.
Motorists do it to one another as well as assaulting the general public via proximity.

DadaKopf

Violence is about power. Sometimes it's direct, physical, sometimes it's indirect and non-physical (in the literal senses). Sometimes it is overt, excessive, sometimes it is invisible. Forms of power may be war, institutions, ideas, social relations.

Violence is very complex, but at the same time something we all experience. It requires a nuanced understanding. Too much violence has been made possible by people defining it inadequately - as only physical violence. But what about how social stigma lead to the prosperity of some, and poverty of others? Violence can take many forms.