THE streaming site Netflix has done a lot to expose many of us to the Vikings and the violent life they lived and in which they revelled. Any examination of history, regardless of poetic licence or glamourisation, is welcome. It’s not perfect, but it is better than nothing.

History is constantly being neglected by both academia and our young. No one really cares what happened before. I remember speaking to a young South African who knew precious little about apartheid. I also remember, relatively recently, speaking to one of the standouts in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations about her knowledge of World War II and being told: “I know it involved that guy Hitler but I’m not sure what countries were involved.”

Well, thanks to Netflix we all know that in the Vikings’ day, which included the period after the 10th century, they were violent in a manner that few have matched. They were primarily from Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

The Scandinavian region represented by the above is today an example of a peaceful society that demonstrates the values of true socialism without the State control normally affiliated with communism. It’s something called democratic socialism. Sounds familiar?

So how did the Vikings go from the most violent to the most peaceful? Well, it occurred over a few hundred years and was largely due to the Christianisation of that region from their former faith, which was an old Norse religion.

Moving from one extreme to another over hundreds of years is harder to explain and, quite frankly, less impressive. There are countries like Taiwan that have gone from near martial law, as recent as 1987, to a country with a murder rate of under one per 100,000.

I have selected these examples — the Scandinavian region and Taiwan — because they have managed to achieve peace and still have a functioning democracy. There are, of course, countries like China and Japan which have impressive murder statistics like 0.44 per 100,000 and 0.24 per 100,000.

To put this into perspective Jamaica, pre-2025, averaged between 45 and 50 per 100,000. China, however, is a totalitarian State and Japan went through being conquered and controlled in World War II to achieve its reset.

China has come a long way. There was a cultural revolution between 1966 and 1977. During this time the intelligentsia of the country was wiped out or imprisoned without any provocation or reason, other than to ensure that they would be intimidated into total submission, or killed.

The conflict took the odd course of mock trials during which people were humiliated and often beaten to death publicly. The antagonists were often university students and the victims were their professors. So much for the perceived intelligence of tertiary students.

The absurdity of it is that the victims were already a totally intimidated group and represented no threat to anyone. This was just the manifestation of Mao Zedong’s insanity and the willingness of a bunch of hooligans.

It is a different country now, with world power status and global influence. It’s led by pragmatic people and, yes, it is a State-controlled society. Yet, the Uyghurs people in Xinjiang are said to be virtual slaves, the victims of genocide, and under constant re-education.

This dichotomy between a non-violent society and a brutal Government is not the utopia to be envied or recreated. Taiwan, therefore, is the example we should emulate — non-violence whilst still maintaining democracy.

Some would say that we can’t compare, as in the cited countries in Asia the killings were politically motivated whereas ours are gang-stimulated. That may be true, but our problem began with politics with our unrecognised civil war in the 1970s, so the example is relative.

Is it that violence, especially killing, is part of a societal life cycle and at some point society matures past the point where killing is accepted, expected, encouraged, and explained?

The English were horrible, possibly the worst of all. Look at them now! Has Jamaica made its first step towards change? Well, we don’t really have political violence anymore — and trust me, that is an amazing improvement. We are trending down our murders to 40 per cent of what they were at their peak in 2009. Is this because of a change in our culture? No, it’s because we have a commissioner of police who doesn’t play around, a Government determined to achieve a particular mandate, a police force that has bought into the plan, and a gang network that has been battered into compliance.

Can we achieve cultural change? Yes, but killing became our culture because of the 70s. It will take a decade of what is happening to change the culture from kill at will to kill as a last resort.

We’re now in a state I call, “Kill at your peril”. Murders are now so low where I work that it is, in essence, just that — “killing at your peril”. For most murders this year, we have either solved them or we are pursuing the offenders. If you kill, you become public enemy immediately. The criminals are realising it too, so they rob without killing. That’s not ideal, but anything is better than murder. It’s so final, so uncivilised, so cruel, and the impact so far-reaching.

Can we truly batter evil into submission? Yes, we can. Look at post-World War II Japan. It took two atomic bombs and an occupying army, but they changed. Germany is another example. There was no real pushback in West Germany after the war. The fanatical society became something else. Years of war, a few thousand tonnes of bombs dropping on you, and the capitulation of your Government will have that effect.

In East Germany no pushback was even possible with the Soviet Union’s boot on their throat. Look at smaller groups like the Cosa Nostra; they are a significantly reduced organisation. The Klansman gang is a shadow of its former self. Look at the Shower Posse in Tivoli Gardens post-2010!

Culture drives conduct. But culture can change, it just takes time. So prepare for the long game.

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