Naturally nonviolent

Charles Collyer (2003) and others note that we humans have a natural resistance to killing each other, a resistance that must be overcome before we will do that odious, unnatural act. How, then, can we bring social norms back to the natural? How can we uncivilize each other, if civilization is how we learn to justify murder? Or, how can we redefine civilization to exclude killing each other from our social norms?

We need a new prime directive. Thou shalt not kill only rates number five (Catholics and Lutherans) or six (Talmudic, Anglican, Orthodox Christian, and others) in the Judeo Christian 10 Commandments, plus many of those religious denominations translate and interpret that commandment as more of a guideline with asterisks, changing "kill" to "murder" and thus creating loopholes large enough to drive an army of tanks through. Capital punishment, self-defense, police procedures and the Just War doctrine all rely on that asterisk. Murders committed in the doctrinal name of all these exceptions rely on the asterisk to shield these heinous acts from both legal sanction and social opprobrium. Correcting this is a minor removal of the asterisk and a massive reordering of the way we manage conflict.

Sounds like a big job. Guess we should get started.

References
Collyer, Charles (2003). A Nonkilling Paradigm for Political Scientists, Psychologists, and Others. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 9(4) 371-372.