Aggression. Is It Really Necessary?

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.
JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI

Aggression  comes from fear. The fear that you have to be aggressive to survive. This thinking comes from Darwin's Theory Of Evolution. That man is an animal too. This theory has done more harm to peace than any Hitlers of the world.


Without aggression, it becomes possible to think well, to be curious about differences, and to enjoy each other's company.
MARGARET J. WHEATLEY

The advantages of eschewing aggression.

To injure an opponent is to injure yourself. To control aggression without inflicting injury in the Art of Peace.
MORIHEI UESHIBA

That is what Gandhi says. Control the violence in your mind. Only them one feels at peace. Gandhi was living example.

No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about his virility.
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR

Aggression comes from insecurity as said before.

Everyone gets frustrated and aggressive, and I'd sooner take my aggression out on a guitar than on a person.
PAUL WELLER

This man is no intellectual but he is, in a way, following Gandhi's ideal. He is channelising his aggression into something creative.

Human nature is potentially aggressive and destructive and potentially orderly and constructive.
MARGARET MEAD

The choice lies with us. It definitely makes more sense to be orderly and constructive.


The bashful are always aggressive at heart.
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY

Beware of such a man or woman. The volcano lies smouldering inside!

Aggression is inherently destructive of relationships. People and ideologies are pitted against each other, believing that in order to survive, they must destroy the opposition.
MARGARET J. WHEATLEY

Exactly. Darwin's Theory again.

Aggression, the writer's main source of energy.
TED SOLOTAROFF

This man is like Sam Weller. Channelise the aggression into something positive. Bullies are folks who have nothing else to do. They are unable to find a vent to their frustrating aggression which comes from the inherent insecurity.

In this present culture, we need to find the means to work and live together with less aggression if we are to resolve the serious problems that afflict and impede us.
MARGARET J. WHEATLEY

Aggression solves nothing. Because it comes from a very negative emotion. Insecurity about oneself.

The tendency to aggression is an innate, independent, instinctual disposition in man... it constitutes the powerful obstacle to culture.
SIGMUND FREUD

Proves the point that aggression is the animal in man. It has to be tamed.To turn a dog into a watchdog. Or it will join a pack of wild dogs and attack everyone.

In poker there is, of course, no attempt to disguise the aggressive element. Poker is a fighting game, a game in which each player tries to get the better of every other player and does so by fair means or foul so long as he obeys the rules of the game. He may bluff or lie about his own strength, the object of the game being either to frighten the other players into believing that he has greater strength or else to prove it. Chess is a more highly symbolic game, but the aggressions are therefore even more frankly represented in the play. It probably began as a war game; that is, the representation of a miniature battle between the forces of two kingdoms
KARL MENINGER

Chess is an even more violent game. I wonder if it is an outlet to our aggressive tendencies. Or a teacher that tells us how to be aggressive  with a mask of civility. More dangerous this.

Research has convincingly demonstrated that using the "rod" creates children who are not more obedient but who are instead simply more angry and aggressive than other kids. Parents who routinely slap or strike their children are actually handing them a model of violence to imitate—and many do indeed grow to be abusive, some even murderously so.
JULIUS SEGAL

Violence begets violence.

In this society, the norm of masculinity is phallic aggression. Male sexuality is, by definition, intensely and rigidly phallic. A man's identity is located in his conception of himself as the possessor of a phallus; a man's worth is located in his pride in phallic identity. The main characteristic of phallic identity is that worth is entirely contingent on the possession of a phallus. Since men have no other criteria for worth, no other notion of identity, those who do not have phalluses are not recognized as fully human.
ANDREAS DWORKIN

How crude! How animal like! Hitler and Stalin believed in bigger armies and more aggression and look what happened!

What eleven- to thirteen-year-old boys fear is passivity of any kind. When they do act passively we can be fairly certain that it is an act of aggression designed to torment a parent or teacher. . . . Mischief at best, violence at worst is the boy's proclamation of masculinity
LOUISE J KAPLAN

The fault lies with the parents and the teachers. They fail to recognise the inherent quality (every child has an inherent quality) of the child and encourage it towards that direction. As a result he/she gives vent to his/her natural energy into mischief, which later turns to aggression in adulthood.

The most important distinction between aggression and assertion is its intent. During assertion, we move ourselves toward another; during aggression, we move ourselves against another. Assertion is vital within a relationship. Aggression is not.... The truth is, reports indicate that both men and women enjoy a partner who is assertive. Such a partner eliminates the need for second-guessing and mind-reading. Such a partner gives his or her mate implicit permission to be similarly assertive. Aggression, however, often evokes more aggression—thrusts, parries, and strategies for defense.
GEORGIA LANOIL

What we need is assertion, which is healthy. Aggression is unhealthy. It is a disease.

In any case, raw aggression is thought to be the peculiar province of men, as nurturing is the peculiar province of women.... The psychologist Erik Erikson discovered that, while little girls playing with blocks generally create pleasant interior spaces and attractive entrances, little boys are inclined to pile up the blocks as high as they can and then watch them fall down: "the contemplation of ruins," Erikson observes, "is a masculine specialty.
JOYCE CAROL OATES

As grown-ups they grow up to be a Hitler. Or a Wall Street broker! And what a mess they land us into!

In the deeper layers of the modern consciousness ... every attempt to succeed is an act of aggression, leaving one alone and guilty and defenseless among enemies: one is punished for success. This is our intolerable dilemma: that failure is a kind of death and success is evil and dangerous, is—ultimately—impossible.
ROBERT WARSHOW

This is what happens when one believes and adopts the motto that"aggression is good. Aggression is necessary". Thomas Hobbes said such a life is "nasty, brutish and short". 

Aggression is just a show of strength. To be effective the other person should have a low sense of self-worth. A person however 'small' he/she may be can never be bullied if the person knows his strengths/weaknesses and knows himself well. He has no grand illusions about himself. Against such a person a bully fails miserably.