Let’s face reality. Violence is everywhere.
It comes in different shapes and forms and is distributed in various means. It can hide and pop up from anywhere and show up unexpectedly. Sometimes the medium of violence is physical, acoustic, or somehow embedded deep within our conscience. In many ways how violence is delivered to us is no way differently than the way a company market’s a product. The only difference is that as a consumer we need to realize that many of these products, like violence, need to be avoided from being purchased.
To summarize – we need to learn how to buy really great products that add value to ourselves. We need to learn to only consume non-violence. Just as we need to learn when to walk into a store, when to approach a salesman, or when to walk away from a product aisle, we need to learn how to avoid the poison of a something violent and keep it from coming into our system, we need to understand how to confront violence, and when to walk away from it.
Companies are genius at marketing their products through various mediums such as television, people, news, radio, movies, YouTube, internet – the point is that marketing for a product has become pervasive by corporate design. Violence is the same way – it is also delivered by various mediums such as television, people, news, radio, movies, YouTube, internet, etc. – violence is pervasive by life design.
Learning to avoid becoming a consumer of violence is just like learning to avoid buying unnecessary products, and can provide many benefits to us. It keeps more cash in our pocket contributing to fostering happiness in the event of an unforeseeable event. It keeps us from buying cheap things that can break down easily giving us more headache. It can also keep us from piling unnecessary junk that we already have in our life cluttering our conscience. Here are some ideas to avoid consuming violence:
- Turn the news off. Just catch the headlines without diving deep into the details if you need to be in the know.
- Reduce television consumption. Limit to channels such as Food Network that are more family oriented.
- Limit radio. Instead listen to podcasts of things unrelated to violence.
- Avoid or reduce your time around people creating violence. Even if they are your close friends or relatives, they are not adding anything to increase positive things within you. Seek friends that are doing good and being good.
- Don’t succumb to peer pressure. If a friend or family member asks you to engage in behavior that causes harm to others, question that relationship.
- Understand what your priorities are. Only one item should be on your shopping list: peace.
- Listen to your conscience. It knows the difference between what is right for you and what is wrong.
Remember, product sales when it comes to consuming violence are not returnable – all sales are final. The only way to deal with this is to learn to convert the violence you have now consumed into non-violence. This is the only thing that can be returned. The great news is that violence can be confronted if consumed – it is not the end of the world because this is where you can start to become a contributor of non-violence making a larger impact to all.