There is too much anger in this world. Many people pray but they don’t seem to pray hard enough to internalize peace in their minds and spirits. How can one continue to pray and kneel in penance for their sins, go to church and pray the rosary every day and then after a while, shout in rage or even kill the innocent? This is a Jekyll and Hyde syndrome our nation, or even the entire world, has developed.
Violence in our culture is fed by multiple forces; the disintegration of family life, media influences, growing substance abuse, the availability of so many weapons, and the rise of gangs and increasing youth violence. But beyond the violence in our streets is the violence in our hearts. Hostility, hatred, despair and indifference are at the heart of a growing culture of violence. What is worse is that our society seems to be growing numb to human loss and suffering. It’s sad to say, but there is too much tolerance for violence in our culture.
Perhaps the reason of such a drastic change in Philippine culture and the increase of violence are due to outside influence. America has the largest influence on the Philippines. And one thing for sure, America is an aggressive nation; their politics, media and entertainment, youth, ideals towards other nations, etc. These are factors that play in twisting the Philippine culture. But, America isn’t going to get all the blame. The Philippines is at fault as well. We have a culture that likes to imitate in order to achieve those heights of other nations. In doing so, internal strife arises because imitating creates high ideals and Filipinos are known to be quite rebellious.
Until a revolution is started in which the mentality to subdue anger and hatred is injected into national systems, violence will continue to occur in society and spread like a disease. People need to learn to be more