Mankinds Lust for War

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Thor said:
Mankind loves war, it always has done and always will do.
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There are lots of things that mankind always did, which he abruptly stopped doing during a Paradigm Shift. That is, after all, the essence of a Paradigm Shift.

Nomadism, living in large extended family units, feudalism, subsisting by the sweat of our brows, slavery, each of these eternal and universal processes came to an end when we acquired the knowledge, created the technology, and/or developed the attitude to progess to something better.

We transcend. We mature as a species.

There's no good reason for the pessimistic assertion that war is unique among human activities so that we will never be able to move beyond it.

The association of the sun sign of Aries with war was cemented by the historical observation that the Age of Aries--the last two millennia BCE--was characterized by virtually ubiquitous and endless warfare. During the following two millennia, war hardly disappeared yet vast regions of the planet enjoyed eras of peace that sometimes lasted for centuries. Who can say that the balance will not shift in the next two millennia so that war is a rarity, or that in a subsequent time it will not dwindle to the status of the small-scale curiosity that nomadic hunting-gathering is today?

My generation and the two that followed us have lived to see the decline of war on a scale that the previous three generations would not have believed. In any decade since the end of WWII, a smaller percentage of the world population has been killed by acts of war than--as scholars assert--at any time since the invention of metal weapons made war as we know it possible.

The U.S. government has been virtually overthrown because of outrage over the war in Iraq, the death rate from which is a trifle in comparison to the carnage caused by drunken driving on our own soil. We lived with the humiliation of walking away from the war in Vietnam because we were disgusted by playing a role in it.

Darfur, Pol Pot, Sri Lanka, these define the scale of the worst wars of the aptly named "postwar" era, yet as bad as they are they would hardly have raised an eyebrow in the 1940s, 1910s, 1860s, etc.

Who would have predicted that we would one day transcend slavery, feudalism, subsistence farming... or living in small bands of nomads, foraging for survival?

We can transcend war too. We're good enough to do it. :)
 
The problem with "transcending" war, is that it just takes one rogue nation to spoil the deal. Everyone's singing by the campfire making love, not war; when suddenly some dictator decides to take over the world.

I say there will be war so long as there are humans.
 
If we want a scientific explanation for why humans are inclined towards violence and war, i suggest everyone read up on Evolutionary Psychology: http://www.hbes.com/ I believe: no more careless pondering and fancy sociology hypothesis on why humans do what they do: reduce everything via Occam's Razor: use models that hold true under various conditions and even various species, like chimps: scientific models: Evolutionary Psychology which is science versus sociology hypothesizing: this is what I believe. If you don't agree with me, then you don't agree with me. I'm so tired right now. Have a nice day.
 
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