In agreement with the title of this article, the essay is divided into two basic
parts: one which is historical and the other philosophical. In the first part, the
author examines at the beginning the classical latin etyma of the term uiolentia (uis,
uiolare, uiolator, etc .. .. ). After that comes the acclaration of the philosophical
concept of «violence» in Aristotle and Saint Thomas, and in continuation an indication
of the application of the same concept to the field of ethics, and finally to
the juridical field within classical roman law. In another sphere of considerations
-ethical and political- the author points out the opinions of some characters
which Plato introduces in his dialogues Gorgias and The Republic, due aboye all to
the resonance which these works hace had in the history of the Western World
until the present time. The subject of bloody violence, which is inherent to the
action of the tyrannicide, is treated here briefly with references to the works of
Cicero, John of Salisbury, Saint Thomas, Marsilius of Padua, Coluccio Salutati, Juan
de Mariana, etc. Phenomena of midieval history suchaas the Crusades and the
trials of the Inquisition could not be silenced in this case because both phenomena
legitimized morally the use of violence directed towards infidels and heretics. The
historical excursus on the topic of the legitimacy of violence in the hands of those
who govern passes in successive orden, through Machiavelli, to the political literature
on the areasson of state», jusnaturalism, etc ... To be underlined is the fact
that since the end of the Eighteenth Century -and in an even much more important
way in the realm of hegelian Idealism- the concept of violence has undergone
a process of amplification as much within the field of Philosophy as within the
experimental sciences: Darwin, Malthus and Hegel form the framework. This
concept, which in Hegel's dialectic transformed itself into the dynamic principie
of the antithesis, and which, therefore, affirmed the structure of the metaphysical
movement of history, was passed on as a legacy to the successive hegelian trend,
which was in itself so complex and so full of ramifications. The figure of Marx
stands out in these pages not so much for his ties with the hegelian left, and
with Feuerbach in particular, but rather because of one of the basic concepts of
historical materialism -the struggle of the classes- which Marx underlined in
his Communist Manifesto as the motivating force of history. The author then
considers on the one hand the relationships which exist between the different
european nationalisms of the last Century and the ones actually existing today,
and, on the other, the Marxist ideology; he analyzes in passing the profound
influence exercised by the Aufk/arung of the Eighteenth Century upon the deChristianization
of man wrapped up first in his rationalism, and, later on, as a
compensation, in new forms of religion and the cult of the world. From here on
several names appear: Lenin, Stalin, Sorel, Mussolini, Hitler, etc., men who were
very different one from the other and even opposed with regard to their respective
political philosophies , but who set the pace for violence of a revolutionary and
counter-revolutionary nature during short years or lasting decades. After a few
more considerations, the first part of this essay ends with the author underlining
the interest which experimental psychology and psycho-analysis have dedicated
to the study of human aggressiveness and its mechanisms.
In the second part of this work the author tries to establish gUidelines for the
study of the relationships between the multiple phenomena of individual and collective
violence in the present, and the mass civilization of our time. In the first place,
the author makes a series of admonitions with relation to the words used: «violence-,
.mass civilization- instead of «tnass society-, «civilization- instead ot
«culture-, etc. He also recommends the need for not classifying en masse as a
result of a reactionary mentality, the discontent which the intellectual contemplation
of the present times produces in the observer, because if our state of animation
could be termed as nothing else but «reactionary», then the same could be said
to define a great part of the best literature of this Century, as well as the figurative
arts of this modem age. The expression «mentality of violence- is applied in the
historical context of cultural regression, from Friedrich Nietzsche to our day. After
this, the author makes a summary description of the mental coordinates of massified
man, as well as of certain particular features of the actual «organization- of
culture, which is increasingly impregnated by political and economical ideas, in
agreement with the fundamental methodology of historical materialism. The nucleus
of these considerations is made up of a philosophical definition of the actual conditions
of culture in Europe. This definition rests upon the conviction that the
ideology of Marxism-Leninism, although it may by in a stage of partial historical
modification, directs not only the political evolution of important sectors of , occidental
society, but also that it has known how to model. thanks again to the
coming-together of circunstances, the forma mentis of the contemporary intellectual.
In the final part of the essay, the author dedicates special emphasis on the influence
of Marxism upon wide sectors of modem Catholicism. He then adds several
wamings in order to avoid , on the part of the reader, interpretations which might
be inopportune or false.
