Political Violence Motives

Tough Things First

The Democrat’s national convention kicked off in 2024 under the constant threat of violence over war in the middle east, but it’s not hard to figure out the motivations. In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn discusses why violence can irrupt in politics and what to do about it.

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Rob Artigo: There’s something in the news business, when I was a reporter, of course, we called it the news cycle, and this has been one heck of a political news cycle. I think it’s been going on for a couple of years, a lot of stuff with the various riots and things like that that we’ve seen on TV and heard about. This has been the strangest year for politics that I can remember. The president steps down from his campaign for reelection, which is huge. That hasn’t happened since ’68 or something I think thereabouts. And he’s not going to seek a second term. And then somebody attempted to assassinate Donald Trump. And so Tough Things First podcast, it’s not a political show, so we’re not going into politics so much as I thought we’d talk about the idea of political violence, because it can happen on an international level, a national level, local level, even in your office building, that sort of thing. Ray, does it start with words or does it start with actions?

Ray Zinn: Which comes first? The chicken or the egg?

Rob Artigo: Right.

Ray Zinn: Well, it could do both, but mostly starts with words. So almost all violence except for sexual or robbery or something like that, most of all violence, we’ll call it group violence, is related to political. I want what I want and I don’t care what you want type thing. And it’s very self-serving. They figure that the only way they’re going to get their point across is to have a violent reaction to it. There was a fellow that I just met a couple of days ago, actually, he’s with the FBI, and he was sent over to Georgia, which is near Russia, it used to be a Russian state, and when he had assignment over there, and so it was a long flight and he got in late, and he was trying to get it to his hotel and his friend, they couldn’t get very close to the hotel because the political government, I should say government facility, was in between him and the hotel.

And there was a big crowd of rioters there, and the police were firing tear gas and all kinds of stuff. So here he is trying to get to his hotel late at night, dragging his roller bag behind him, and, man, he’s frightened, and even though he is FBI, he sees this angry mob that they’re rioting over just the fact that their country, Georgia, was not doing very well and the government was taking all the money, and the people, the have-nots, as you would, were not being served well by the government, and so they were rioting against the government. And he said he was fearful for his life because they’d looked at him as just like a government official because of the way he was dressed and carrying his roller bag, and so they thought he was, as you would, one of the government people.

And so the police actually had to rescue him because the mob was attacking him. And [inaudible 00:04:12] is like a couple of hundred people attacking one person. And so he said after scary 15, 20 minutes he finally got to his hotel. But anyway, there are no prisoners in violence. They don’t take prisoners. They try to destroy life, as you would, or destroy what people have. So, again, violence, especially political is very detrimental. And the root of it is hatred. And we’ve talked about this before on podcasts is that hatred is at the root of all violence. In other words, if you don’t agree with me, I hate you. And I’ve actually had people tell me that, literally to my face, “If you don’t like what I want or what I say, I hate you.” And they’ve actually used those words. And so whenever we have hate or hatred, then we have violence.

Rob Artigo: Well, yeah, I just heard a story yesterday related to me about how a woman found out one of her young people, one of her kids, if you will… I think it might have been a grandmother and a grandchild, but the young one decided to register for a political party that angered the older person. And I won’t explain the parties, because it doesn’t really matter. The fact is the point still remains is that she was so enraged that she said she would disown that child if they re-registered in this particular political party because it was against their hardest heartfelt beliefs that that they should be doing that. So it’s one of those things where politics can divide families in a way that doesn’t make sense because it’s not very democratic. It’s just like violence, just like groups. If my political beliefs don’t agree with yours, it’s not enough for us to disagree, you have to hate me.

Ray Zinn: Well, it’s not just politics. I’ll say I’ve seen the same thing in religion, I’ve seen people get violent against religions, like the Jews are right now being hit upon, as you would, because of the Palestinian issue in Israel. And that’s a more of a religious thing as opposed to political. It’s not a political problem per se. I guess indirectly it’s political, but it’s more religious. It goes all the way back to the Bible times, and the argument over who owns what land and who has right to what land and so forth. Same thing with the Russians and the Ukrainians, again, it goes back to what their belief is regarding what belongs to them and what doesn’t belong to them. And it’s not political, I guess, as I said, indirectly political. The Ukrainians against the Russians and the Russians against the Ukrainians, or the Israelis against the Islamic terrorist is not, as you would, political so much. It actually goes down religious beliefs, as you would. So violence comes from lots of different sources and not just political parties arguing between themselves. Violence is manifested itself in lots of different ways.

It could be people breaking into stores to steal or to take possession of something that doesn’t belong to them because they feel it’s owed to them or they figure you don’t deserve it, so they’re going to take it and whatever. And so whether it’s wars or violence around the world, or whether it’s between political parties, it can be words, it can be physical, it can be economic, there are lots of different ways that we can have violence, but violence really should have no part in our life. And for our listeners, we would encourage you to love each other as opposed to hate each other. Even if you disagree, don’t be disagreeable. Maybe you don’t share the same feelings, but don’t become violent about it. Just let it go. Because everybody has a right to their own beliefs and opinions.

And maybe you don’t even agree to what we’re talking about on this podcast, but don’t manifest itself with violence or anger or whatever. Just let it go. And that’s the key to this podcast is that we have to get along even though we disagree with each other. Don’t be disagreeable, just disagree and let it go at that.

Rob Artigo: This is a fast-growing podcast rated one of the top in Silicon Valley. We’d like it to keep it that way, so why don’t you give us a rating on your favorite podcast platform. Please also check out Ray’s books, the Zen of Zinn series one, two, and three, and, of course, Tough Things First, his first book. We look forward to the next time, Ray.

Ray Zinn: Thank you.