On poverty and violence

20070611
(answer to the question "Poverty generates violence: true or false?")

I always distinguish poverty from despair. Poverty can be measured, and some people manage to live happily with only a few things. Despair is what people actually feel. More than poverty, despair and injustice lead to violence, and moreover, violence generates violence. The initial violence can be either physical or psychological, and great injustice is a kind of violence.

Hopelessness makes people do extreme things. You cannot repair injustice but have some impact, make yourself be heard. With the help of often cynical manipulators, you can be turned into a suicide bomber : your suffering stops, you make other people suffer, you have an impact and you make yourself be heard in a final kaboom.