The Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing describes this patterning towards violence as a communicable disease that can be passed along from one person to another. The trick is to resist it and break the chain of strong social conditioning. In spite of its many virtues as a nation, America has long glorified its military as well as the violence attached to it. If we are to ever change the tenor of political discourse, and stop violence against citizens here in our own country, then all of us will have to change our attitudes towards the use of force, military or otherwise, in the hope of breaking this unfortunate cycle.