Death and violence is the history of mankind.
It cannot be denied that we are a brutal, savage and often bestial species. From our earliest beginnings to the present day, we settle our differences by killing each other. Whether it be with rocks or with drones or by starving children to death with “sanctions,” it is who we are.
Despite the efforts, also throughout history, of the small minority of Humans who fight for peace and life, rather than fight to kill and destroy. Throughout the ages, that small minority of humans has steadily increased, it’s power has steadily grown. But still at the drop of a hat, Humans will rush off with blood in their eyes for revenge, for territory or for…no matter how well it is veneered, for naked greed.
Human emotion is strong, as is the power of rationalization and denial. MUCH stronger than human reason, that cries out at the destruction, horror and suffering of war. One need only look at the incredibly short time between The War to End All Wars….and the beginning of the next war. The war that brought us nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons that were also supposed to End All War.
It is who we are.
Decry it protest it, do everything you can to stop it. Try your very damn best to help elevate human consciousness to the next level, where the lip service we as a species pay to ending war and violence of all kinds becomes at least more of a reality.
But do not deny it.
Because to do so is to deny who Humans are, what we are.
Other than that, this essay has no point.
Just like war and violence.
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May the number of people who are willing to help put it out, and rebuild it from the ashes, continually grow and increase.
lol.
Wars are created those greedy few.
Unless and until we hold war criminals accountable — the world over, it will not stop, despite our cries for peace!
[Uh, hum, eeee-mmmm’s?]
War is NOT a natural state of man. As a recent National Geographic article noted in its coverage of one of the last prehistoric societies left on earth – The Hadza in Africa:
In the written history of mankind, they’ve never been in a war. They’ve never suffered from plague or pestilence because they are too scattered for such things to take root. During famines, local communities turned to the Hadza for survival. They have the widest range of diet of anyone on earth. They only work for 4 hours a day and spend the rest of their time in recreation. No one remembers the last time a Hadza killed another human being. It’s unheard of. They have no religion at all and shrug if you ask them what they think will happen to them when they die.
So no, Bhudy, war is NOT our natural state. You’ve been watching Raquel Welch in One Million Years BC too much. (not that I blame ya)
Saw him on GMA this morning as he told Stephanopolous his new movie is an expression of the question of whether humans can rise above their violent nature.
Let me suggest that someday the road will fork; some will go left and some will go right, never to meet again….
IMHO it is cultural. There can be no doubt that the majority of people who have ever lived on this planet at any time in history have not participated in war. War is calculated and organized violence. Today, as in the past, it marshals all the resources of the polity. One can even speculate that war is the purpose of the organized state.
Those who have lived quiet lives outside of the recorded, historical narrative have had no need to pen the Illiad.
We are children of the 20th Century (although our
past is littered with war and violence), and we often
cannot see past the modern, industrial war machine and massive violent upheavals. There have been many societies or cultural groups that have fortunately missed the deadly war games of the historical narrative, the linear reminder of war as a natural phenomena. The world is a sphere. Our recorded history and the paid scribes have ignored the majority of the surface space (of the sphere) and what people have been doing on it for generations.
to identify a period of time during the history of this continent beginning with the European invasion of 1492 (or quite possibly earlier), when some group of people were, whether at home or abroad, were not being oppressed and brutalized to satisfy pure, unadulturated greed. This wholesale subjugation of those unfortunates has long served as the dubious foundation underlying our country’s “success.”
Perhaps I’m missing some period where such atrocities were absent. If so, could someone please enlighten me?
Can we rise above the level of hunter gatherers without wanting to kill each other. When we start moving into cities we start making rules. Some people love the rule making process and some want to be free.
In 2012 if we get that ability to manifest with our minds the ideal parallel universe what will that look like.