Howard Zinn Violence And Human Nature Summary

Summary of Howard Zinn’s “Violence and Human Nature”

In Howard Zinn’s article “Violence and Human Nature” Zinn investigates the belief that violence is an innate trait of human beings. In the end he comes to a conclusion that not all humans are born with a drive to be violent, but instead mainly influenced by that person’s natural surroundings and environments. In section one of Zinn’s article, he explains three events in which he has experienced which have ultimately shaped his perception of human violence. Two of the events he watched and one in which he participated. He claims that the violence he has participated in can be explained by the environment and it was influenced by his surroundings. Zinn believes it is wrong to make excuses beyond the environment one is raised in, or that it is the environment that one is brought up by that holds the reason why human beings are violent. In the next section, Zinn is looking at the great minds to see what their views are and if violence is connected to Human Nature. Zinn looks into a philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, who
Zinn believes one reason we go to war is because people are brought up to believe that they could confide in our political leaders and that our country is good and better than others. Zinn also mentions that people also go to war because of the benefits that are obtained like education and economic security, and some even go to war because some were recruited under the law. J. Glenn Gray a former combatant presumes that the “lust of the eye” was one of the reasons people went to war, and he believed people were fascinated by emotional experiences and painterly images they received from the war. In the end Zinn believes that the reason we go to war is by the beliefs that we are taught and not because we have an inherent drive for