Page 28 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 30
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you will get nothing.”
How much of the 10,000 birr will you give
“Compensatory this stranger? As you respond, make sure
violence is the response from the stranger is affirmative
precisely that or else you both end up with nothing. Now,
violence which let us turn the table and assume you are the
has its roots stranger in the other room to whom the offer
is made. How much will you accept as fair?
in and which In your response remember that rejecting the
compensates for offer means no one will get the money. Try to
impotence. The provide an honest answer to yourself, before
impotent man you proceed.
can transcend
life by destroying This experiment has been conducted in
various countries under various context,
it in others or in and a relatively similar response has
himself.” been attained. When you are the one who
offers the bargain, most people feared the
consequence and proposed to given 30-
50% of the money. But when the stranger is
n an attempt to understand our mental powerless and when there is no consequence
representation of justice and fairness, most offered less. On the other hands, those
psychologists have come up with an in the receiving end of the bargain agreed to
Iinteresting experiment. There are many a relatively equal share but mostly rejected
variations of the experiments, but I included the offer when given less than 30% of the
the one pertaining to our topic. money. My focus is on the stranger who
Scenario: Imagine someone promised to give can reject or accept and ask: Isn’t 2,000 birr
you 10,000 birr without asking any service better than nothing even if the other person
in return. Then told you: “There is someone gets 8,000 birr? Even when we are dealing
in the other room with whom you can choose with free money, we prefer mutual loss rather
to share the money. You are free to give than unequal or unfair share. In other words,
this stranger nothing, all of it or anything in we prefer to see the loss of the other person
between.” You accept this term and were just than have a relatively small benefit from the
about to leave, when this person gave you the money. With this in mind, I proceed to one
final warning: “I have told this person that form of violence, which Erich Froom labels
I gave you will 10,000 birr. Remember, you as ‘vengeful violence’.
can offer to give any amount of the money.
But if this person rejects your offer, both of Vengeful Violence: This is also called
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