well, since you're talking about self-esteem, that may well be at the root of a LOT of violent behavior. People with low self-esteem probably feel threatened by more situations than people with a healthy level of self-esteem. Feeling threatened makes people lash out or act out in a variety of ways. Some do so in aggressive fashion; some turn on the charm. Some hide their fear well; others have to leave the room or situation immediately, or act rashly to change things.

I once read that anger is the desire to change the situation immediately.

Our culture tends to have an unhealthy relationship with anger. It's either not appropriate to exress it, or people are encouraged to express it in inappopriate ways...should we blame the talk shows? The church (for instilling the concept of unsurmountable sin in ordinary humans)? the schools? or the typical contemporary parent who is too self-involved or busy to properly discipline their kids? I see a lot of bratty out-of-control spoiled kids out there, and it does seem this is way more common than it was even a decade ago. What has happened? if some of these kids do not get a serious smack in the head before they turn 18 they will turn into spoiled, self-centered, whiny-assed adults who can't deal with any disappointment no matter how small...

I am thinking of the soccer games where it's just unbearable if the kid's team loses. Fights break out between parents and referees. One man DIED because a dad from the opposing team (these were parents at a kids' game) beat on him so hard. When did parents start needing so badly for their kids to win, that they feel the urge to fight when things don't go their way? Are they living vicariously through their kids? Are they reliving their own traumas of inadequacy from childhood? are they unable, or unwilling, to tell their kids that life is tough sometimes, and that means you lose the game once in a while (or more often, if your team sucks)...?

Competition at all costs, winning at all costs, is not healthy. Parents have to compete to get their kids into the "right" schools almost since birth...and push and push them to make sure they get there. Seems every kid these days is being forced to be "gifted and taleneted" even when they aren't (I see the results of this every day in my college classes, believe me; kids who think they deserve the world on a plate when they can barely read or write, who consider themselves great artists when their ideas and work are banal and completely unoriginal, mainly because they can't be bothered to even read or watch the great classics of film or literature...I fear even a simple reference to The Great Gatsby or The Wasteland would be lost on them...

is this is the fault of a failed public school system? An overall decline in literacy? A growing lack of interest in culture/books/arts?

I think if more people spent more time reading books we'd be a less violent culture generally...now if only our brainless leaders would also do the same...