April 2011
Violence
As violent as society itself
by
Kalika Kofi / Photo:
Wildy
A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
Idianelys Santillano (1977),
a senior researcher with the Youth Studies Center (CESJ), holds a PhD in
Psychology (2000) and a Master’s Degree on the Methodology of
Community-based Correcting Processes (2010).
When we in
Somos
Jóvenes
discussed the topics we’d cover during the year, we decided to dedicate
the otherwise love-focused February issue to violence as the opposite of
affection.
Our plan was to highlight the fact that there’s no
telling where the line between the two really is and to dwell on a
fundamental conclusion: the more we love, the less violent we are, and
vice versa.
Could anyone tell how big the difference is? Are our
teenagers violent, and if so, to what extent? Once again we look at data
provided by the
Youth Studies Center (CESJ) with
the help of Idianelys Santillano, one of their psychologists and
researchers.
THE HAPPY MEDIUM
“Are our teenagers violent?,” she repeated for a kickoff.
“If I answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ I would be disregarding youth’s diversity.
I’d find it hard to say ‘yes’ because many youths are not violent, or
‘no’ because some display a violent behavior even if they’re not
violent. The short version for my answer would be, ‘they’re as violent
as society itself’.”
“SJ: Is that complexity the reflection of the state of
affairs?”
“It reveals a collective responsibility. If I answer
‘yes’, I’d be saying it’s a problem young people have of being
violent, but the truth is that what they really are, with this or that
difference, it is largely contingent on the context where they became
social beings.”
“SJ: Can you give us the ‘long’ version of your answer?”
“Fact: there’s a growing trend in the world to not think,
to be hedonistic and live in the present that made collective
consciousness about notions and conduct quite blurry. That the bar has
been lowered is why many teenagers turn to violence more often and
without too many regrets.
“As to Cuba, our young people's socialization process in
the 1990s took place in a context of shortages and difficulties. We
presented them with the greatest achievements in health, education and
social security that we had managed to keep in place, but we did it in
such ways that they saw it as a given from far-off times.
“The ‘I-don’t-have-I-can’t-help-you’ attitude affected
our perception of education, long based on overprotection and
indulgence. While each person chooses violence or not, their decision is
influenced by a family, a school, a community, a city, a country. We had
cracks at every level of our education system that fueled the inception
of violent conducts”.
“SJ: Does the home environment play any role therein?”
“Before 1959 family rules in Cuba were quite inflexible,
noticeable in common phrases like, ‘Children speak when the hens go take
a leak’; ‘Lower your voice when you talk to me!’; ‘God help you if you
give your teacher any cause for complaint!,’ etc. Then came the
Revolution and everything mellowed, but maybe we went too far, as we
educated our people in ways that either impugn or violate altogether, in
word and deed, any intra-family boundaries, be they emotional or
spatial. Our young forgot they’re not supposed to talk back to their
parents, who in turn yell at them to remind them; mom and dad worry if
their child likes to shut him/herself away, so they try to keep the
bedroom door open...
“That the boundaries were blurry led children to treat
their folks as equals and grandchildren to believe it was OK to deride
grandpa and grandma. We never found a happy medium between a good
individual-oriented instruction and another which lets youth do as they
please”.
BY DEFAULT
“SJ: Violence would arise halfway through that process…”
“Violence not only happens when you cause a brawl in a
nightclub or get into a fistfight at school. Take, for instance, those
couple or friendly relationships in whose midst underlie unforeseen
violations of each person’s individuality and rights”.
“SJ: Usually in subtle ways.”
“That’s right. We worry about physical violence –blows,
shoves or any other body-harming contact– and verbal abuse –insults,
threats and yelling– but there’s also the often-shushed psychological
violence and emotional blackmail, which undermines our self-esteem, for
one, and we seem to be less concerned about that”.
“SJ: We have TV spots based on sexual and emotional
violence.”
“I have addressed three types in my studies: physical,
verbal, and psychological violence –I associate the latter with the
emotional one– while other researchers go into further details, not
about the aftermath but regarding the motive used to exert violence on
and subjugate other people, and they speak about sexual, economic and
other forms of violence. It all depends on what you want to emphasize”.
“SJ: Could you describe an example of subtle violence?”
“When I was a guidance counselor for teenagers in Havana,
I saw how the boys would downplay the girls’ knowledge, even if they
gave more information and more elaborate data than the boys. My sessions
were relaxed by all appearances, but the boys believed themselves to be
experts on the subject and would constantly belittle the girls’ views”.
“SJ: Is machismo a motive for violence?”
“Violence is always linked to a real or symbolic
relationship of uneven power. Sexists hold that the man calls the shots
and start from such a premise to form more or less subtle bonds of
violence with a partner.
“Power per se never creates violence. Maybe I have
money and you’re broke, but that doesn’t mean that I’ll use violence
against you. But if my wealth and lifestyle defines our personal power,
I’ll think of myself as the winner because I’ve got money or I’m the
boss, and in the end I go violent on you”.
“SJ: Is there violence by default?”
“I like to go there when I work with teenagers. Violence
seems to be related only to action, but when a son is not on speaking
terms with his mother and she defends herself by saying, ‘So you don’t
want to talk to me? Well, I will not wash your clothes, nor will I cook
for you, nor will I give you any lunch money!’, what do you call that?
By refraining from doing or saying anything, you could be committing a
great act of violence”.
LOVE IS A CULTURAL PRODUCT
“SJ: What other elements are there in your notion of
violence?”
“Violence always brings with it some kind of more or less
noticeable physical or psychological damage and involves a more or less
clear harmful purpose.
“For instance, there’s the overprotection that detracts
from and binds the protected person is a form of unconscious violence.
What your regular overprotective parents intend is to look after their
child but they have no idea that they’re being violent and doing a lot
of harm”.
“SJ: Could you make a distinction between youth violence
in Cuba and in other societies?”
“Our violence is not the same as in other countries by a
long shot. I have said since the beginning that our teenagers are as
violent as society itself. However, we must get involved, for our youth
play a key role in society and we can’t let violence spiral up”.
“SJ: We’ve talked about action, inaction, damage,
intention, asymmetric power... What’s left to say?”
“That violence is learned. Any violent action is born in
the individual’s array of learned or taught responses to an event. This
is plain to see, for instance, in a joke by comedian Octavio Rodríguez,
‘Churrisco’, in which a mother is warning her son: ‘Look,’ she says, ‘if
a boy hits you, you hit him back with your hand, a stick, anything; just
hit him back’.”
“SJ: To quote Brazilian Dominican friar Frei Betto,
‘Lenin said that love is a cultural product, and it’s true. Love depends
on a work of education’. The same goes for violence, restraint,
kindness...”
“Love is one of those feelings people tend to take for
granted no matter what, but it has to be cultivated as much as
moderation, tenderness or kindness. Moreover, it’s never too late, not
even for the most violent individual, regardless of their age, to learn
to be kind, tender and easy-going. If I didn’t believe that, all I do
would be pointless. All teenagers deserve to know that they have a
choice of being sociable, neighborly and companionable”.
|
Cuando
acordamos en Somos Jóvenes los temas que trataríamos
durante el año, decidimos dedicar el número de febrero, donde es
tradición hablar de amor, a la violencia, cualidad contraria a
cualquier sentimiento de afecto.
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Somos Jóvenes Digital
Directora: Marietta Manso Martín, Editora: Alicia Centelles,
Diseño Web y Programación: Carlos Javier Solis, Webmaster: Letty
Fernández Chirino,
Casa Editora Abril, 2011