PROBLEM

Our children are the first generation in modern society to fear the future. For the first time, the future is not seen as a place of hope and something better.

Across our world, we witness the consequences of a society organised around normalised violence: wars, poverty, ecological breakdown, and the slaughter of more than 80 billion animals every year. These look like separate crises. They share one root: violence.

Group of teenagers sitting with their backs to the camera on a cliff edge overlooking the sea, symbolizing the uncertainty and anxiety faced by today's youth about the future

What violence actually is

Violence is often confused with aggression, but the two are not the same. Aggression is a natural response to distress. It signals a threatened boundary or a need for help, and it can protect us and those we care about from harm and injustice.

Violence is different. It is the abuse of power that denies the needs, dignity, and lives of others. It has been embedded in economic systems, cultural structures, and everyday practice until it looks like the natural order of things.

How Violence Shapes Our World

Violence needs a winner and a loser. For it to exist, it requires an imbalance of power. When such imbalances are sustained through force, they grow into dominance hierarchies that shape today's world.

➔ Power imbalance leads to hierarchy.

➔ Hierarchy leads to separation.

➔ Separation leads to alienation.

➔ Alienation leads to disconnection.

➔ Disconnection leads to non-cooperation.

➔ Non-cooperation leads to deterioration.

These dynamics shape our world. Their consequences are devastating for all living beings and for the planet. This is not a mistake. It is the result of a system's design.

The Many Faces of Normalized Violence

Normalised violence appears in many forms, often invisible because it is treated as normal:

Direct violence against people: wars, genocide, state violence, child abuse, human trafficking, domestic, gender-based and sexual violence, hate crimes and interpersonal discrimination
Direct violence against animals: individual acts of cruelty and abuse, poaching and wildlife trafficking, blood sports (dogfighting, cockfighting, bullfighting), trophy hunting, abandonment and neglect of companion animals.
Direct ecological violence: arson, illegal logging, illegal dumping, destruction of habitats and ecosystems, illegal mining, contamination of water, air, and soil.
Structural violence against people: poverty, hunger, oppression and discrimination based on gender, race, religion, nationality, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, and age.
Structural violence against animals: commodification as property and resources, meat, dairy, and egg industries, fashion, entertainment, experimentation, tourism, racing industries, commercial hunting and fishing.
Structural ecological violence: extractivism and commodification of nature and the planet as property and resources, privatisation of natural commons (water, land, seeds, forests), soil, air, and water pollution, climate crisis, biodiversity collapse, ocean degradation, deforestation, noise and light pollution.
Desensitisation to violence: through media (television, movies, news, social media, virtual reality, video and online games), and through cultural traditions and religious practices that normalise it.