Innate Tendencies

by Keith Vargo

Many people believe that aggression is innate and that human beings are born with violent tendencies. I’m one of them. Some people who think aggression is innate believe that we, as a species, are doomed to an endless cycle of conflict, murder and war because of it. I’m not one of them.

The reason I don’t believe violence and war are inevitable is because of my experience in the martial arts. After being involved in the fighting arts for 20 years, I can say I’ve seen a lot of people learn how to be decent human beings. They learned what hurting people is all about and why it’s wrong. They learned about their own aggressive tendencies—how to express them and how to deal with them. They learned that aggressive tendencies don’t inevitably lead to violence.

That may seem obvious, but there are reasons to believe we’re kidding ourselves. Primate studies and some anthropological research suggest that humans have a default setting for violence. Scientists have learned that chimps and primitive people both tend to wage constant low-level war on their own kind. The fact that this type of violence happens so often in so many places suggests it’s part of being human. No matter what we do, we can’t avoid sliding back toward violent conflict.

But even if that’s true, there’s violence and then there’s violence. Martial artists live with and enjoy a constant, low level of violence. They live at that default setting and defy tragedy. They make an art out of aggression and shape a morality in reaction to it. Even if they’re born aggressive, they show that they are what they choose to be.

This collection of choices cannot be overstated. Aggression is an innate tendency, not an instinct. The form of human aggression isn’t determined in the same way the shape of a spider’s web or a bird’s nest is. Human violence, from a fistfight to the waging of war, is a product of conscious choices. We decide when and how we clash with each other. We decide if it’s right or wrong. We decide what it means to be an aggressive species.

A discussion of the kinds of choices we must make when it comes to violent behavior or supporting a war is too much to get into here. The fact that they are choices and not blind instincts is what counts. Moreover, the fact that martial artists regularly deal with these choices on a personal level makes us important. It’s one thing to talk in high abstractions about international relations and human nature, but it’s another thing entirely to convince a 14-year-old that you can’t kick a guy in the head just because he insults you. The abstractions are important, but teaching a simple truth to someone can make the world a better place right now.

In short, the tragic view that we’re doomed to hurt and kill each other reflects only one possible future. If we decide that violence is inevitable, it almost certainly will be. But things don’t have to be that way. If we martial artists can find ways to civilize basic, physical aggression, we can certainly find answers to the larger problems of group violence and war. But the first step is to decide that’s what we want.

About the author: Keith Vargo is a free-lance writer, researcher and martial arts instructor who currently lives in Japan.