"The concern grows not only from clinical practices, when the researcher has to psychologically empower survivors of sexual violence or violence in personal settings, but also from observing mass violence happened all over Indonesia during the last five years. Being fully aware of the complexity of the phenomena, the research focuses on the philosophy of humankind: on human consciousness and existence. The research questions can be densed and simplified in two: (1) Why does violence persist to happen? In another word, how does the subject make sense of his/her existence and the existence of others, how does the subject make sense of violence, whether as agent, victim, as well as direct/indirect observer? And (2) how to promote ideas to eliminate, or at least, to prevent violence from becoming banal? The research integrates three conceptions as framework, namely Bakker's conception of 'human being as the centre of the universe', the strategy of living proposed by Van Peursen, and Ricouer 's phenomenology of will. The research also uses the works of many, from Lorenz, Midgley, Fromm, Girard, Sartre, Circus, de Beauvoir, Millett, Kappeler, Levinas, Spaemann, Irigaray, to Arendt, to grasp different understandings which will be then integrated into the total notion of human being.
From biological perspective to social learning, from analysis. on the strategy of living whether it is dominated by mythical way of thinking or by ontological demarcation, it is realized that violence is almost inseparable from our lives. Subject-object dualism and hierarchical opposition are the way by which people live, causing the subject to objectify and negate The Other. This in turn leads all parties to he suspicious in order to maintain, or reverse the hierarchy. Gender-based violence alone stemmed from positioning women as The Absolute Other without reciprocity, that make women, always having emotional relations with men, face difficulty to define themselves as the Subject. From Arendt we learn that once an action is taken, it can be rolling and multiplying to different directions uncontrollable. Realizing the banality of violence, them, above all, it can be stated that violence is about the will, about human responsibility. How to eliminate violence? There is no unwavering answer. Genuine respect to the dignity of human being and to the plurality of consciousness, openness, care and the attitude of 'careful thinking', as well as the courage to stand against the stream, at the least, may prevent violence from becoming banal."
