Since the dawn of history, human destructiveness has been inborn in Man. In primitive times, with his rudimentary weapons he had to defend himself against wild beasts in a completely hostile environment in order to survive, following the theory of the survival of the fittest. Paganism has worshipped violence through certain rituals, like human sacrifices. Even the Bible made reference to violence with the story of Abel and Cain. But paradoxically, nowadays violence – verbal or physical or psychological – has taken alarming proportions, unprecedented in human history, and it is omnipresent in our fast changing society.

We come face to face with violence in everyday life: in our homes (domestic violence, harassment by inconsiderate neighbours); schools (bullying, gang warfare), roads (traffic bullies, undisciplined road users or vociferous hawkers and bellicose squatters), working sites (slave drivers or employee-cum-saboteurs) and an unimaginable place like the Parliament (exchange of inflammatory words). Every evening, shocking images of violence in news and current affairs broadcast are pipelined into our cosy living-rooms amidst family circles.

Our contemporary history is being written with the blood and tears of Palestinians, Kosovars, Lebanese and Iraqis. How can human beings, yet boastful of landing on the moon, indulge in such orgies of violence? Violence has taken monstrously the shape of political ideology. Might is right nowadays. In the name of mass destructive weapons supposedly to salvage our civilisation, what crimes have we not committed? Violence has become the daily diet served by television and radio.

Just like the Romans during the times of the Roman Empire watching helpless and innocent Christians being torn to pieces by the hungry lions, we, in modern days, watch violence in its raw state: the innocent inhabitants of Iraq or Palestine being massacred mercilessly with sadistic pleasure. Scenes of utmost brutality and barbarity are daily hammered into our minds through television. The media has turned violence into a spectator sport. Do we deserve to call ourselves civilised human beings?

Violence breeds violence. It is most natural that, with such intoxicated frames of mind, we are irremediably conditioned to violence. Domestic violence is as if institutionalised and spreads its tentacles everywhere especially among the lower income groups, the illiterate ones. When domestic violence creeps in, the whole family structure quakes. It is the globalisation of violence, so to say.

In industrial societies television has to our dismay assumed the role of babysitter and transmitter of moral and cultural values. Statistics have revealed that children more exposed to television become more aggressive. All the ingredients of a decadent society are assembled to provoke the eruption of an explosive cocktail. We are sitting on a powder keg. The least spark can ignite an uncontrollable conflagration as evidenced by the recent fatal accident in Palma.

The President of the Human Rights Commission has raised the alarm concerning violence in some Indian films, which contribute to the deterioration of the already explosive situation. Are the members of the Censor Board appointed just to pocket the stipends offered? Or are they nominated to shield our society from such pernicious influence?

Certain Indian and Western films show the degradation of women at the hands of men such as rape, beating and subordination. Women are depicted to serve as sexual slaves to men – at the loss of their human dignity. Surprisingly, even some seductive advertisements show crude nudity of women and sometimes we feel embarrassed and even ashamed to watch television in our family circles. Where values become utterly materialistic, disaster in some shape or form invariably follows.

Moreover, some parents seem to turn a blind eye to the way of dressing of their wards, victims of the influence of fashion displayed in films. To dress fashionably is one thing but to wear provocative clothing is completely a different matter! Parents have a vital role to play in guiding their offspring in matters of morality. Permissiveness has limits beyond which we should not trespass.

The days of fighting on horseback are no more. Nowadays, with sophisticated weapons, we wage with impunity chemical, bacteriological or even nuclear warfare. What is our modern civilisation drifting towards? Man is the only animal that can kill and even destroy his own species without any rational gain, either biological or economic. The human record is a record of destructiveness and cruelty. With his bow and arrow, he has conquered territories but today with nuclear weapons he wants to subdue the whole universe at his feet.

A society which cannot guarantee its citizens a fair degree of safety from arbitrary violence, rape, vandalism and sheer destructiveness ceases to deserve the name of civilisation. The portrayal of violence and sex contributes irremediably to a decadent society. We must take action to redress the situation before it is too late. Otherwise, the road to Hell lies ahead bleaker than ever.