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HOW TO ELIMINATE THE CAUSES OF VIOLENCE IN BRAZIL AND THE
WORLD
Fernando Alcoforado *
Violence occurs in relations between nations states, between companies, between
individuals and between nations against businesses and individuals and between
companies against individuals. Violence between nations reaches the apex with
international conflicts that result in wars of regional or global aggression. Violence
between companies configures the unfair action of many of them in an attempt to
establish themselves on the market at the expense of others. Violence among individuals
results, among other factors, the frustrations and social inequalities. The violence by
governments against companies and individuals materializes in extremely high tax
burden, the violence by governments against individuals that fight for political,
economic and social changes and the violence of businesses against individuals
concerning the brutal exploitation of the labor force in productive activity and the
pricing policies of monopolies.
Historians assume that wars have always existed because the documented records of
human history, dating back 6,000 years, there have been only 292 years of relative
peace between peoples. This time period of 55 centuries, however, is only a speck of the
total time of human presence on Earth (See website
<http://www.library.com.br/Filosofia/conflito.htm>). The following passage, taken from
the book Uma História da Guerra (A History of War) of John Keegan (Companhia de
Bolso, 2006), illustrates the prevailing perception about: "The writing world history is
largely a story of war, because the States where we live born of conquest, civil wars and
struggles for independence. Moreover, the great statesmen of history writing were
generally men of violence, because even though they were not warriors - and many
were - understand the use of violence and did not hesitate to put it into practice for their
purposes ".
Despite repeated intentions of all countries of the globe to maintain world peace, the
twentieth century was the scene (so far) three major wars. In World War I (1914-1918),
died about 9 million people. In 1919 was founded the League of Nations, whose basic
principles were "the prohibition of war, the maintenance of justice and respect for
international law". European leaders were convinced that a new and lasting international
order was beginning. For British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, the League of
Nations would raise humanity to a higher plane of existence. Only twenty years later,
the Second World War broke out (1939-1945), which killed between 40 and 52 million
people.
Moreover, the violence of conflicts in our time has no parallel in history. The wars of
the twentieth century were "total wars" against combatants and civilians without
discrimination. The historian Eric Hobsbawm [A Era dos Extremos (The Age of
Extremes), Companhia das Letras, 2008] adds: "Without a doubt the twentieth century
was the most murderous century of which we have record, both in scale, frequency and
extent of the war that filled, barely stopping for a moment in the 20s, as well as the
single human catastrophes that produced from the greatest famines in history to
systematic genocide volume". The tragedy of the wars in the twentieth century is well
summarized in the words of John Keegan [Uma História da Guerra (A History of War),
Companhia de Bolso, 2006): " In this century, the frequency and intensity of wars also
distorted the perspective of ordinary men and women in Europe West, in the United

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States, Russia and China, the demands of the war reached most households over two,
three or four generations. Call to arms took millions of sons, husbands, fathers and
brothers to the battlefield, and millions did not come back".
Violence kills more than 1.6 million people worldwide each year, according to a report
by the World Health Organization (WHO). Violence is now the leading cause of deaths
of people between 15 and 44 accounting for 14 % of deaths among males and 7% of
deaths among women [See article Violência no mundo mata 1,6 milhão de pessoas por
ano (Violence in the world kills 1.6 million people each year) published on website
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/notícias/2002/021003_violenciamv.shtm>]. The
director of injury prevention and violence department of WHO, Etienne Krug, said that
deaths could be avoided with a change of attitude and that there is nothing inevitable
about violence and it is not intrinsic to the human condition. The WHO report calls for
the implementation of educational programs for children in schools, parent training and
schemes to reduce the use of firearms, as well as better support for victims of violence.
The new edition of the Mapa da Violência (Map of Violence), drafted by sociologist
Julio Jacobo Waiselfisz and edited by the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences
(FLACSO) and the Brazilian Center for Latin American Studies (Cebela), brings
serious warning about what it calls the "epidemic" violence in Brazil against children
and adolescents [See Article Mapa da Violência coloca Brasil entre os quatro países
com maiores taxas de homicídio de jovens (Map of Violence puts Brazil among the four
countries with the highest homicide rates of young) posted on the website
<http://memoria.ebc.com.br/agenciabrasil/noticia/2012-07-18/mapa-da-violencia-
coloca-brasil-entre-os-quatro-paises-com-maiores-taxas-de-homicidio-de-jovens>). In a
ranking of 92 countries, only El Salvador, Venezuela and Guatemala present homicide
rates higher than Brazil (44.2 cases per 100 thousand young people aged 15 to 19
years).
The high rates of homicide, according to the coordinator of the study, the researcher
Argentine Julio Jacobo Waiselfiz show a sad reality: Brazil and the Latin American
societies are violent. The presented data also confirm a diagnosis made recently by
Amnesty International. According to Atila Roque, executive director of the NGO in the
country, "Brazil lives, tragically, with a sort of 'epidemic of indifference', almost
complicit large portion of society, a situation that should be being treated as a real social
disaster. This is due to certain naturalization of violence and a frightening degree of
compliance of the state in relation to this tragedy" says in the passage quoted in Map of
Violence.
Over the past 30 years, the homicide victims arrive in Brazil for more than 1 million
people. Data are collected in 27 Federative Units, 33 metropolitan areas, 27 state
capitals and 5564 municipalities in the country, using information from the ministry of
health, public safety, notary, police and other public bodies [See Article Violência no
Brasil: pior que Iraque, Angola e Afeganistão (Violence in Brazil: worse than Iraq,
Angola and Afghanistan) posted on the website
<http://blogdotas.terra.com.br/2011/12/28/violencia-no-brasil-pior-que-iraque-angola-e-
afeganistao/>]. To be clear the absurdity of the number of violent deaths in Brazil, just
compare with other places that live extreme situation such as Angola, a country in civil
war for 27 years (550 000 victims, nearly half of the victims here in the same period).
Others recent armed conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, together totaling 89 000 deaths

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by 2007. Ie, the bloodiest war here is that these places already excessively bloody
planet.
Increasingly, the media no longer clear that we are vulnerable to violence, forcing us to
see that violence has invaded all areas of life and the relationships of the individual.
Clearly the concern about violence in our society manifested in organized crime,
widespread corruption in the various public bodies, to wars between countries, the
relations of domination exercised by developed countries against peripheral countries,
terrorist acts, etc. Violence represents everything that hurts, destroys, mugs or hurt
people - actions that do not preserve life but harm the welfare of both individual and
collective.
We live in a world that has as one of its main features the violence perpetrated by man
against his fellows. The perception of many people is that violence is the predominance
of animal instinct that we have on the values of civilization. This would explain the
escalation of crime and war in all ages around the world. The debate about violence puts
on the agenda the question of human nature whose theme was treated by eminent
thinkers such as Sigmund Freud (Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis),
Carl Rogers (American forerunner of humanistic psychology), Immanuel Kant
(Prussian philosopher), Thomas Hobbes (English political scientist, mathematician and
philosopher), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Swiss writer and philosopher) and Karl Marx
(German economist, philosopher, historian and political scientist), among others. For
millennia philosophers and scientists raise the question: human nature is innate or is the
product of the environment or both? It is genetically determined or by society where the
human being lives or both?
Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Eastern Religions and Spiritualism also address the
question of human nature which are presented below. As for Christianity, there is the
assertion that we are endowed by God with free will and that the first impulse of our
freedom goes to evil and sin, that is, for the transgression of divine law that we are
beings weak, sinful, divided between good (obedience to God) and evil (demonic
temptation to submission). Christianity is to believe that the human being is, in itself
and by itself, unable to perform well and virtues. Humans, must recognize the will and
law of God, fulfilling the mandatory, ie, for acts of duty [View Article Cristianismo: O
Problema Moral (Christianity: The Moral Problem) posted on website
<http://portalveritas.blogspot.com.br/2009 / 10/cristianismo-o-problema-moral.html>].
The Judaism as much as Christianity, considers the violation of a divine command as a
sin. Judaism teaches that humanity is in a state of inclination to do evil and the inability
to choose the Good instead of Evil. Judaism uses the term "sin" to include violations of
Jewish law that are not necessarily a lack moral. According to Judaism, man is
responsible for sin because it is endowed with a free will, yet he has a mild nature and a
tendency to evil, because the the heart of man is evil from his youth. So God in his
mercy allowed the man to repent and be forgiven [See Encyclopedia Judaica (Jewish
Encyclopedia) published between 1901 and 1906].
Islam, in turn, is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of Muhammad, called
"The Prophet", contained in the Islamic holy book, the Koran. The word Islam means to
submit, and expresses submission to law and the will of Allah. His followers are called
Muslims, which means one who submits to God. For Muslims, the Koran contains the
message of God to Muhammad. According to Mohammed, he is the author of good and
evil. Islam believes that there will be the day of resurrection and judgment of good and

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evil. On this great day, all man's behavior, whether good or bad, will be placed in the
balance. The Muslims who have acquired sufficient merit in fair and personal favor of
Allah will go to heaven, all others will go to hell [See the article Islamismo (Islam)
published on the website Islam <http://pansvitoria.sites.uol.com.br/>].
Eastern religions support the thesis that, in general, human nature is originally good and
it degenerated because of ignorance, or the desires of his mind clouded, which causes it
to become required severe discipline to retrieve her original goodness. This is the main
reason why oriental ethics advocates a strict discipline in order to recover the man's
original virtue. Herein lies the explanation of oriental appearance of evil that would be
entirely the creation of Man. Virtually all Indian religious systems, including Buddhism,
and Taoism in China, they attribute the appearance of evil ignorance of man, which
gives rise to knowledge false and pernicious desires. Eastern Philosophy believes that,
as the man produces evil, can also destroy it [See the article Características da Filosofia
Chinesa e Indiana (Characteristics of Chinese and Indian Philosophy) of Chan Wing-
tsit in Moore, C. (ed.) published on the website
<http://orientika.blogspot.com.br/2008/04/caractersticas-da-filosofia- Chinese-e.html>].
The vision of Spiritualism is exposed in Article Natureza Humana (Human Nature) in
which questions how is it possible that man, created in the image and likeness of God, is
viscerally bad? As understood that the Supreme Architect of the Universe works
produced there intrinsically flawed and defective? To the spiritualists, man is
unfinished. Among unfinished and defective work there is a chasm away. The evil that
is in man there is extrinsic and not intrinsic. The defects and glitches are the result of
ignorance, weakness and imbalance that humanity still suffers. Remove such causes,
decanted human corruption will disappear [See the article A Natureza Humana (Human
Nature) published on the website <http://artigosespiritas.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/a-
natureza-humana/>].
In the article cited above, the problem of evil, according to Spiritualism, is solved
through the enormous job of education to transform human darkness into light, the vice
into virtue, common sense in the madness, weakness in force. The greatest good you
can do to a man is to educate him. Kant, the philosopher thus comprises education:
"Develop the individual all the perfection of which it is susceptible: that the purpose of
education." Pestalozzi, the consummate educator, says: "To educate is to progressively
develop the spiritual faculties of man." John Locke, great preceptor, is expressed on the
matter this way: "To educate is to straight spirits, ready at any moment, not to do
anything that does not conform to the dignity and excellence of a reasonable creature."
Lessing, authority no less illustrious, compares the work of education to the work of
revelation, and says: "Education determines and accelerates the progress and
improvement of man".
For the doctrine of spirits, evil is man's own creation and has no existence except
temporary, transient, because the largest arrangement of Life has no meaning the
permanence of evil. The evil in this way is part of learning, but the condition of waste,
so it must be dropped at some point. Alan Kardec points in Obras Póstumas
(Posthumous Works) that "God did not create evil, was the man who produced the
abuse that made the gifts of God, by virtue of his free will" (See the article A transitória
maldade humana (The transient human) evil of Abel Sidney de Souza published on the
website <http://www.espirito.org.br/portal/artigos/diversos/comportamento/a-
transitoria-maldade-humana.html>).

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For these reasons, Christianity, Judaism and Islam admit that the human being has a
penchant for good and for evil, and that man is, in itself and by itself, unable to perform
well and virtues. Virtually all Indian religious systems, including Buddhism, Taoism in
China, present a view diametrically opposed to assert that human nature is originally
good and it degenerated because of the ignorance of man, which gives rise to
knowledge false and pernicious desires. According to Spiritualism, the evil that is in
man there is extrinsic and not intrinsic, ie defects, snags and glitches are the result of
ignorance, weakness and imbalance that humanity still suffers and that removed such
causes, decanted human corruption will disappear. Eastern religions believe that, as the
man produces evil, can also destroy it. According to Spiritualism the problem of evil is
solved through the enormous work of education of man to transform darkness into light,
the vice into virtue, common sense in the madness, weakness in force.
The question of human nature was treated by eminent thinkers such as Sigmund Freud
(Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis), Carl Rogers (American
forerunner of humanistic psychology), Thomas Hobbes (English political scientist,
mathematician and philosopher), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Swiss writer and philosopher)
and Karl Marx (German economist, philosopher, historian and political scientist),
among others. For millennia philosophers and scientists raise the question: human
nature is innate or is the product of the environment or both? It is genetically
determined or by society where the human being lives or both?
Freud stresses in his work the destructive aspects of man. It demonstrated the need
posed by Freud, in order to control and restrain the individual, because of the danger
that he might pose to society, which leads him to conclude that man, he recommended,
is not, socially speaking, very trustworthy. According to Freud, civilized society is
perpetually threatened by disintegration because of this primary hostility of men among
themselves. The culture has to resort to every possible reinforcement in order to erect
barriers against the aggressive instincts of men. Faced with a being so hostile and
disintegrating, nothing more natural than the society to use its coercive power [See the
article by Sonia Maria Lima de Guzman under the title A natureza humana segundo
Freud e Rogers (Human nature according to Freud and Rogers) posted on the website
<http:// / www.rogeriana.com / sonia / natureza.htm>].
In the above-mentioned article, it appears that, in Carl Rogers observes the opposite of
Freud's view, because he believes it is precisely in a coercive context, where the
individual cannot expand, or better, update the potential that makes it hostile or
antisocial. Otherwise, we have nothing to fear, because their behavior tends to be
constructive. Rogers notes that when the man is truly free to become what he is in the
depths of his being, when it is free to act according to its nature as a being capable of
perceiving things that surround him, so he Clearly, it is routed to the overall and
integration. The design of a naive view of human nature attributed to Rogers is far from
the truth because he knew that to defend itself and driven by intense fears, and
individuals may, in fact, behave incredibly destructive, immature, regressive, antisocial
and harmful.
For Kant, the human being is born endowed with certain provisions, whose destiny is to
go through a process of development increasing through generations. Thus, human
nature brings the original dispositions that comprise the one hand instincts, and on the
other, reason. There is an expectation that the man has a compass and guide their reason
and not instinct. Thus, the two types of arrangements are antagonistic and fighting with

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each other without, however, that a win other permanently. Reason and instinct will still
exist even with the maximum development of rational capacity, which means that the
continued progress and development of the faculty of reason does not determine the
disappearance of instinct [See the article by Adriene Leyserée Fritsch Xavier under the
title Considerações sobre a natureza humana em Kant e Freud e suas implicações para
o desenvolvimento da Civilização (Considerations human nature in Kant and Freud and
their implications for the development of Civilization) posted on the website
<http://www.psicanaliseefilosofia.com.br/adverbum/Vol3_2/03_2_7natureza_humana_
kant_freud.pdf>].
Hobbes has as its central thesis about human conduct, which all humans are selfish and
are willing to use others for their own benefit. Hobbes speaks of “the war of everyone
against everyone", the ongoing struggle that would trigger if men do not live in safety
and had to rely completely on their own resources. Hobbes tries to show that there can
be no society without government and without the penalties of the law. There would
only individuals antagonistic to each other. Hobbes compares human life to a race
where we have to assume that there is no other purpose unless another prize of getting
to the first. The competition - the desire to outdo the other - is part of the fabric of our
lives, or want to achieve something at the expense of others, or we defend what we've
gained [See the article by Roger Trigg under the title A Natureza Humana em Hobbes
(Human Nature in Hobbes) posted on the website <http://qualia-
esob.blogspot.com.br/2008/03/natureza-humana-em-hobbes.html>].
The central idea in Rousseau's thought is based on the conviction of man's natural
goodness. According to Rousseau, the drawbacks of socializing away from the man
himself threw him against his fellow man. It is this process of transformation that man
degenerates. Because he abandons his natural instincts going to use the justice instead
of mercy. The natural feelings lead men to serve the common interest, while the ratio
compels selfishness. To be virtuous, a man need follow the natural feelings more than
reason. For Rousseau, socialization is the cause of denaturation of man, and the best
way to their degradation. The communion with nature is the only way to preserve the
true essence of man [See the article by Fatima Dalva Fulgeri under the title Conceito de
natureza em Rousseau (Concept of Nature in Rousseau) posted on the website
<http://www.paradigmas.com.br/parad12/p12.6.htm>).
For Marx, what characterizes the man is not only rationality, but the fact of being the
architect of their own development. Humans are able to change the world around them
and in doing so, they change themselves [See the article A Natureza do Homem
Segundo Karl Marx (The Nature of Man According to Karl Marx) posted on the website
<http://nomosofia.blogspot.com.br/2011/10/natureza-do-homem-segundo-karl-
marx.html>]. Marx presented a definition of the essence of human nature in
Philosophical Manuscripts, which characterizes human beings as free and conscious
activity, in contrast to the nature of the beast [See the article by Viana Nildo under the
title A Renovação da Psicanálise por Erich Fromm (The Renewal of Psychoanalysis by Erich
Fromm) posted on the website <http://br.monografias.com/trabalhos914/renovacao-psicanalise-
fromm/renovacao-psicanalise-fromm.shtml>].
For these reasons, it is clear that Hobbes and Freud converge in their thinking when
considering the aggressive instincts of man and the necessity of coercion to suppress
them. The pessimistic view of Freud and Hobbes is opposed to that of Carl Rogers said
that only in a coercive context man becomes hostile or antisocial and that no coercion it

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will tend to be constructive. Kant defends the thesis that the provisions based on reason
will have greater progress than those based on instinct. Rousseau has as its central idea
the conviction of the natural goodness of man and that society is that degenerates him
threw him against his fellow man. Marx says that man is master of its own development
and that human beings are capable of changing the world around them and in doing so,
they change themselves. In summary, it is quite clear that the existence of a society
based on social justice, antithesis of the inhuman capitalist system in place, can make
human beings behave constructively and be able to change the world around them and
in doing so, change yourself. This is the way to combat the violence that increasingly
contributes to the disintegration of the social world in which we live.
*
Alcoforado, Fernando, engineer and doctor of Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the
University of Barcelona, a university professor and consultant in strategic planning, business planning,
regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo,
1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do
desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,
http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel,
São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era
Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora,
Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global
(Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011) and Os Fatores Condicionantes do
Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), among others.