The evil that we, as sentient beings, do to each other will always attend us. This has always been the belief of every religion in existence.
If everyone realises that this role does not necessarily have to play itself out or that anyone can only do to you as much as you allow them, then the whole scenario must out of necessity change.
We are social animals, and that's all that separates us from from your basic quadruped. We, pure and simple, have devised a more sophisticated way of doing things. But like all animals we instinctively and subconsciously, I must add, have structured our lives around two basic constructs or desires; viz: survival and conquest. Irrespective of the complexity or simplicity of an individuals life, it can always be broken down into these two undeniable principles.
Survival and Conquest
An individuals adherence to either one of these principles is to a large extent dependent upon one's personality. Since the two principles overlap each other, it would not be surprising that the more aggressive individual would devote his energy to conquering and the more passive individual to mere survival.
In the animal kingdom these roles have played themselves out over a rather long period of time, and as such this has given way to to an established hierarchy within their own groupings.
Pride of Lions
Observe if you may the situation in the animal kingdom and in the lion pride in particular. One would observe that when it comes to the hunt for prey, as always it's the females of the pride that assume the more aggressive stance. One can read "maternal instinct" and the need to provide for their offspring into this behavior, but on careful observation it becomes quite obvious that it is not necessarily the conquerors who are the first to partake of the feast.
In this pecking order a particular animal wrestles his way to regal status, and all others just take their cue in order of descent.
Ours is a social order which lends itself more readily to what would seem like a rather precarious form of mobility; a kind of "rags to riches" syndrome. It's often been said that most of us are so preoccupied with living that we never have a life. Every thing in life is predicated on the very rudimentary principle that all our resources are finite. If the analogy of the hierarchy in the lion pride can have any meaning in the lives of human beings it can only be seen in the light of that of "the village" or society at large and not within a familial situation.
The idea of several people helping themselves to a "piece of the pie", comes to mind. The greater one's claim to a share of the pie the less there is available for everyone else. Simply put, the aggressors in our society know that given the fact that the vast majority of our populace are merely interested in a sustenance type existence satisfied with consuming only their very small "piece of the pie", therefore they can quite easily amass a disproportioned share of the resources... the proverbial lion's share.
Ignorance or apathy
Ignorance is probably the singular most common denominator found in all those who have allowed themselves to be relegated to a category of mere subsistence existence.
It would seem as though knowledge is all that stands between "living" and mere existence . Here is where all the other human factors come into play. If knowledge was all there was standing between our life of rags or riches then all we'll need is, to acquire that knowledge and we will all be on our way. But the answer is not quite that simple, there is almost an infinite number of parameters that can be added to this equation before we can draw any conclusions.
One risks being classified as naive in saying that as social animals we first and foremost have got to overcome many of our inhibitions; eg: false pride, and only then can we expand our world view in the process.
