Is America a Land of Violence and Hate?

07 Sep 2026 21 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

There is nothing new in writing or talking about violence in America.  The civil rights activist H. Rap Brown said, “Violence is as American as cherry pie” in 1967, which people later misquoted using “apple pie.” 

A woman friend of mine who belongs to the Bahai Faith gave me a short manuscript in Bahai Studies Volume 6 titled “The Violence Free Society:  A Gift for Our Children” by Hossain B. Danesh.  I want to print the following excerpt from the introduction to this manuscript: 

“Physical and mental violence has become the hallmark of modern society.  Infringements of the rights of others, distortions of the truth and of human relationships, the profanation of human nature and outright destructive actions are ceaselessly reported – sometimes even celebrated – in the media and constitute the major themes of modern literature.  Violence casts its shadow everywhere and few children born today can look forward to a life free of violence.” 

These words were not written yesterday.  Nor a few weeks or even months ago.  They were written in 1979.  That was nearly 50 years ago.  They could have been written today or tomorrow without changing one word.  America is a Land of Violence. 

Three days ago, a news report on one of the major networks reported about a robbery that took place in a Texas bank.  The robber was shot by a civilian or customer in the bank.  The robber managed to get out of the bank but was found by the police and died shortly afterwards.  I was listening to this newscast on YouTube and noticed that there was close to 400,000 views and over 2000 comments.  I read about 100 or so of the comments.  Here are a few of them: 

  • This is the best kind of deterrence.  Don’t even think of robbing a bank.  Or anyone for that matter.
  • He finally got the help We all needed.  Damn criminals.
  • Give that customer a free toaster
  • Great job customer.  One less robber.  Give him a big reward.
  • Criminals beware.  Americans are getting sick of the sh*t.

In 100 comments or so, I found only one that expressed some remorse for the death of another human being.  This person was roundly criticized by others who labeled him/her a Pollyanna.  I continued scrolling to find any other sympathy but NADA.  The robber according to eyewitnesses had a knife and not a gun.  Now a knife can kill you very easily so there was no doubt a threat to employees and customers.  However, robbing a bank with a knife strikes me as a person with a severe mental illness or perhaps financial desperation.  This does not justify robbing the bank, but it might be some grounds for sympathy or compassion rather than glee at his death. 

When I read the comments accompanying news reports of the attempted bank robbery, I was struck by how little sympathy many commenters expressed for the man who was killed. But a friend subsequently reminded me of an important limitation in drawing conclusions from what we see online. We no longer know how many comments represent independent human voices, how many may be automated or AI-assisted, or how algorithms have influenced which comments we see. Even if every commenter is human, people who post comments are a self-selected group and hardly constitute a representative sample of Americans.

So I should be careful about saying that these comments tell us what “Americans think.” They don’t. What they do tell us is that a remarkably harsh attitude toward the robber was highly visible in this particular online discussion. That observation is still worth considering—but it is not the same thing as measuring public opinion.

Could the robber have been incapacitated by the customer rather than killed?  How much value do we put on killing a person over a sack of money?  Where is any remorse over another person being killed?  Most banks have FDIC so even if the robber got away with some money, no one in that bank was going to be out one dollar. 

Why does a nation founded upon ideals of liberty, equality and individual rights repeatedly resort to violence against people it fears, hates, wishes to control, or simply regards as belonging to the wrong group?  And then we glorify the violence? 

Why does violence seem to be getting worse?  More road rage, more school shootings, more mass killings, more fear everywhere you turn.  We have entered a new feudal age with gated communities and more private armed guards than public police officers.  Not to mention the over four hundred million guns owned by people that can now carry them about loaded.  In several states, no permit is needed to purchase a gun or carry it.    

The late Pope Francis wrote an encyclical titled Laudato si’.  This was a global call to protect planet Earth and all people, arguing that environmental degradation is deeply tied to poverty, consumerism, and a lack of human connection.  Pope Francis wrote that gated communities are often built “to ensure an artificial tranquility,” serving as physical barriers that separate the affluent from society… They reflect a broken human ecology where wealthier populations wall themselves off rather than engaging with or improving the broader urban fabric.

In the next few weeks, I am going to write about eleven types of violence in our society.  I am going to conclude this series with a final and 12th blog on what we as citizens can do to alleviate the violence.  “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result” was first penned in Narcotics Anonymous literature from 1981. 

We have tried more policing.  We have tried more guns.  We have tried tougher and mandatory sentencing.  We have built more prisons.  We have incarcerated more Americans per capita than most other countries in the world.

The U.S. incarcerates its people at a much higher rate than any other major, wealthy democracy.  The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any independent democracy on earth, at a rate of 580 per 100,000 residents. Western European nations usually maintain incarceration rates between 60 and 150 per 100,000 people. This means the U.S. rate is roughly four to five times higher.  While a few nations (such as El Salvador) have higher peak rates due to specific mass-arrest campaigns, the U.S. consistently remains near the very top globally and holds a disproportionate share of the world’s total prison population relative to its size. 

So, if you still think more prisons, longer sentences, more guns, mor police, more incarceration is going to make you feel safter and create a safer America, than you need to see a psychiatrist. 

 “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result“

Here are the eleven categories of violence that I am going to discuss: 

  1. Social Violence — violence arising from social conflict, alienation, inequality, bullying, gangs, community breakdown, and interpersonal disputes.
  2. Racial and Ethnic Violence — slavery, lynching, racial massacres, attacks on Indigenous peoples, hate crimes, and racially motivated contemporary violence.
  3. Domestic and Intimate-Partner Violence — spouses, partners, children, elder abuse, and violence within families.
  4. Xenophobic Violence — violence directed against immigrants, people perceived as foreigners and people perceived as different such as Gay people and Transgender people.
  5. Psychopathic or Predatory Violence — serial killers, sadistic offenders, and apparently individualized violence where ideology or ordinary social conflict offers little explanation.
  6. Clan, Gang, and Tribal Violence — gangs, organized criminal groups, family feuds, and perhaps the broader human tendency to divide society into “us” and “them.”
  7. Religious and Sectarian Violence — violence against religious minorities, antisemitism, anti-Muslim violence, attacks on churches, synagogues, mosques, and violence justified through religious ideology.
  8. Political and Ideological Violence — Assassinations, insurrectionary violence, terrorism, extremist movements, attacks on political officials, and violence intended to achieve political ends.
  9. Mass and Public Violence — school shootings, workplace shootings, public massacres, and other attacks in which strangers or institutions become targets.
  10. Institutional and State Violence — slavery enforced by government, violent suppression of labor movements, abuses by law enforcement, incarceration abuses, military actions against Indigenous peoples, and other violence exercised or sanctioned through institutions.
  11. Economic Violence:  violence associated with robbery, organized crime, drug markets, labor conflict, exploitation, and disputes over property and resources.

One contradiction that we need to deal with when talking about violence in this country is this:

Why has violence been such a persistent thread in American history despite our country’s simultaneous traditions of democracy, generosity, tolerance, community service, religious freedom, and peaceful political change.

To call America “A Land of Violence and Hate” can seem harsh because it can ignore the other side of the coin.  However, I think it is time we face up to the fact that while many good deeds, good people and good efforts to help others do exist in America, there is all too much violence. 

We all want the same thing.  Less violence in our lives and more good times.  Unless we admit that we have an epidemic of violence in our country and deal with it, nothing will change and as history has shown us it will only get worse. 

Next Blog: In the interests of not driving anyone crazy about violence. I will alternate my blogs and try to give you some other stuff to think about in the next few weeks as well. I will do all twelve blogs on violence but not all at one time. Please feel free to share any of these blogs.

  1.  Social Violence

21 Comments (+add yours?)

  1. Gretchen's avatar Gretchen
    Sep 07, 2026 @ 06:33:20

    You are tackling an immense, important subject. The Baha’i Studies article by Hossain Danesh was an important book for me in 1979 while I was raising young children and one of the things that led me to become a Baha’i that year. I hope you reach many thoughtful people with this subject.

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  2. dazzlinge277b882c6's avatar dazzlinge277b882c6
    Sep 07, 2026 @ 07:18:36

    Looking forward to the series. I wonder how large the reduction in violence and hatred in our country would be if citizens just simply and seriously practiced the religion they currently profess to honor.

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  3. Deermoonflower's avatar Deermoonflower
    Sep 07, 2026 @ 09:36:57

    I relate to what you write here. I see an American trend towards escalation coming out of valuing liberty and justice. Trying to understand and promote systemic solutions could be a better way to truly value liberty and justice more. Such as, if incarceration is handled by for-profit companies then there is less incentive to rehabilitate. The US has more repeat-offenders than countries that prohibit this practice.

    One idea I’d offer is hesitation over social media comment sections as relating to public thought anymore. There is a lot of evidence of bots in these spaces. One person can generate 1000’s of comments – for whatever motivation they have. This makes social media a poor location to study public dialogue now unfortunately. People react emotionally and quickly, maybe later acknowledging to themselves that they can feel both remorse for loss of life and respect for self-defense. Nuance is lost. But people may also be responding to a technology used in these spaces- whether for boosting engagement for capital gain, or an actual attempt to sway public opinion. Viral comment sections can’t be seen as equivalent to public thought anymore.

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    • Dr. John Persico Jr.'s avatar Dr. John Persico Jr.
      Sep 07, 2026 @ 11:51:29

      Thanks for the comment and warning Deermoonflower. I will certainly consider it from now on when I read any comments. As for the issue of profit making companies, I aways told my students to beware of anyone selling them anything. I always taught that the best organizations balance efficiency and effectivness. Doing things right and doing the right things. Most non-profits are poor at efficiency while the for-profits are often poor at effectiveness. One instructor I had was Genichi Taguchi. He was famous for his loss function. The Taguchi Loss Function states that any deviation from a product’s perfect target value causes a financial loss to society, not just when it breaks. Instead of treating quality as a simple “pass/fail” within limits, it shows that loss increases quadratically as the product varies from the ideal target. Economics has a term called externalities which I tie to effectiveness but too many companies want to ignore. Taguchi’s loss function takes these externalities into consideration.

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      • Deermoonflower's avatar Deermoonflower
        Sep 07, 2026 @ 12:09:20

        Thank you for referencing “The Taguchi Loss Function” – that seems like a good concept for me to consider these ideas with. Politics and economics are complex to the point of being overwhelming. But I’m trying to be a good citizen and understand the issues well enough to vote. I’d like to be pro-autonomy without escalation of violence. Thanks for writing about this issue!

        And about comment sections. When I first went to college we used laptops to type notes in class and had online discussions. I’m taking classes for fun and personal development again currently. At this school, notes in classes must be handwritten, essays must be handwritten, discussions in person. No phones, computers or meta glasses allowed in class. It seems we’ve developed a technology that has decreased our ability to use technology for connection. I’ve tried not to be completely drawn in to either the hype or hysteria around AI, it’s been hard for me to remain objective. It seems it could be both a benefit and a harm. Thanks for considering my idea about comment sections, it may be unrealistic but I see the logic of the concern.

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        • Dr. John Persico Jr.'s avatar Dr. John Persico Jr.
          Sep 07, 2026 @ 12:14:06

          I can’t write worth a damn. My first wife was a good typist and used to type everything I wrote so it would be readable. I can’t even read my own handwriting. I would not do to well at your school. I can see the point in one sense but not sure I would take such measures myself when I was teaching. Furthermore, I think AI can be a help much like a computer or typewriter in getting our ideas across. John

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    • Dr. John Persico Jr.'s avatar Dr. John Persico Jr.
      Sep 07, 2026 @ 12:03:07

      Please see the editing I did based on your comment. WHat do you think?

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  4. kwholley63's avatar kwholley63
    Sep 07, 2026 @ 12:32:49

    I think it boils down to simple opportunity, fairness, and economics. I’m not saying capitalism is bad, but it is getting more unregulated, and more people are suffering from a lack of basic things- from food to medical care, education, etc.- which makes life hard. I think if more time were spent on the infrastructure of needs and on making it a way for people to have dignity and a better life through an effort/reward system, it would improve. People often resort to extreme actions out of fear, need, or lack of opportunity. The government can’t provide that, and we have been selling that nonsense for decades. 50+ years ago, this began with the shrinking middle class, which is almost gone now.

    If a company were run like the government, it would be out of business in 12 months. Most politicians would not even pass a screening test I had to take in my jobs, nor do they have the skills I needed to manage people or projects. It is a joke. To reduce crime, you need more and better opportunities to succeed.

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    • Dr. John Persico Jr.'s avatar Dr. John Persico Jr.
      Sep 08, 2026 @ 16:54:00

      Kevin, I could not agree with you more. You and I would probably be called “bleeding heart liberals” but maybe more people should have bleeding hearts. I recently sent a friend of mine the following story:

      Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one day, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions.

      Off in the distance, the man noticed a small girl approaching. As the girl walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could see that she was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea. The girl came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

      The young girl paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”

      The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”

      The girl bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

      ~ Adapted from The Star Thrower, by Loren Eiseley (1907 – 1977)

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      • kwholley63's avatar kwholley63
        Sep 09, 2026 @ 10:35:43

        Yes, we would be, but the evidence and the studies are pretty clear. Like they say, you are only as strong as the weakest link, and there are a lot of weak links now.

        It can’t be seen as you saying it fixed everything, but you can start making gradual changes to help as many peopleas possible.

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