ty, without a sense of deeper human meaning.
With this loss of the deeper human meaning of life, it becomes more possible for society to send people to extermination camps (since their lives have no deeper meaning). With the sacred space around people removed, tentativeness and respect are lost. In their place, people are now open and fair game for anything. Violence in society operates within the context of this
dehumanization of life (Bellow, 1982).
John Irving echoes these sentiments when he notes that humans have always been a violent species. According to Irving, this is frustrated time and a frustrated society in which there is a great sense of individual and economic worthlessness. As a result, there is helplessness and resentment, which leads to violence. Irving likens the political terrorist violence so prevalent in society to a genuine illness, though Irving notes that one only need read Charles Dickens to know that society in Victorian England was also violent. To Irving, passionate acts of violence out of love or hate are more understandable than much of the political violence of today that is ideologically motivated. There is a suspicion that belief in an afterlife enables people to passively accept violence. Thus, people passively accept a violent death in hopes of better in the other world. In addition,
the modern city has so many avenues of escape, that people are able to live with illusions and avoid thinking of the violent reality surrounding them (Irving, 1981, p. 70-71).
Violent actions are a common part of modern society that can be read about just about any day. One of the more notable incidents occurred in October of 1983 at the Augusta National Golf Club. A gunman named Charles R. Harris seized two presidential aides and three other people and held them hostage while President Reagan was playing golf. The gunmen kept the hostages in the golf club pro shop and continually hung up on the Presiden...