The following question will require an extensive six-part answer, which should be perfect—upon reflection—for completing my languishing history of aggression, 40,000 Years From Home.
“James, I was discussing violent crime with a friend and he said that the cause is poverty, and that white people, if they were poor, would commit just as much violence as blacks do. Can you offer any illumination that might counter this? I just have to believe that there is some other reason than poverty for the tidal wave of black on white violence.”
-Habibi
Habibi, I have no confidence in my ability to name a cause. I have reason to believe, that since aggression covers a wide spectrum and the notion of “crime” is entirely subjective, that we are looking at multiple intertwined violence threads. Speaking of which, the term “violence” is as problematical as the term “crime.” We will get into that early on.
Since our first evidence of human life is evidence of violence, which is a narrow expression of aggression, and since the ultimate cause is therefore speculative in the extreme, I will instead offer a trajectory of aggression from prehistory until present, narrowing very specifically at the end of the survey to the area of Baltimore in which I live.
Outline to the Conclusion of 40,000 Years From Home
‘What Causes Violent Crime?’
A Man Question from Habibi: Part One of Six
The Roots of Violence
Defining Aggression and Violent Crime: Gilgamesh to Big Chev—Part Two
‘Chimping Out’
Aggression Among Higher Primates: Gilgamesh to Big Chev—Part Three
The Violence Tree
The Trajectory of Aggression in Epic Poetry: Gilgamesh to Big Chev—Part Four
‘God Shall Know His Own’
A History of Hierarchal and Heretical Violence: Gilgamesh to Big Chev—Part Five
Harm City East
Aggression in East Baltimore from 1950-2015: Gilgamesh to Big Chev—Part Six
The above articles may be accessed as they are posted via the 40,000 Years From Home tag at the top of this page.
