In International Relations yesterday, we began a discussion of why wars happen. The main question we were trying to answer was whether or not war is something learned or something deeply ingrained in us.
Konrad Lorenz, a famous German anthropologist, noted that humans are part of the animal kingdom (not to say that human's are -animal- creatures, just that we're basically made the same way). As such we share in some of their instincts: mating, eating, fear, aggression. All of those are necessary to the survival of a species here on earth.
However, humans are the only animals on earth for which the second leading cause of death is the hands of another human. Why is that?
Some animals have horns, teeth, and claws... but when they fight, they rarely kill each other. Man has his intellect. So Lorenz concludes, man has the aggressive instinct of a beast and the intellect to produce weapons of ungodly power. We don't have to see the people we kill, we don’t have to physically bite into another person’s neck (like a wolf would), all one must do nowadays is push a button or pull a trigger. How hard is that?
He concludes that man's passion will ultimately make us a short-lived evolutionary experiment. I wish to prove him wrong.
Passion overrules Reason... if you want it to. If your mind is staked against something ("We cannot risk war. It will not happen. Period."), Reason will be the ultimate law. If your mind is not made up ("I don't want to go to war, but if I do... it'll be really great to see those fuckers get what they deserve.") Passion has already won.
Konrad Lorenz, a famous German anthropologist, noted that humans are part of the animal kingdom (not to say that human's are -animal- creatures, just that we're basically made the same way). As such we share in some of their instincts: mating, eating, fear, aggression. All of those are necessary to the survival of a species here on earth.
However, humans are the only animals on earth for which the second leading cause of death is the hands of another human. Why is that?
Some animals have horns, teeth, and claws... but when they fight, they rarely kill each other. Man has his intellect. So Lorenz concludes, man has the aggressive instinct of a beast and the intellect to produce weapons of ungodly power. We don't have to see the people we kill, we don’t have to physically bite into another person’s neck (like a wolf would), all one must do nowadays is push a button or pull a trigger. How hard is that?
He concludes that man's passion will ultimately make us a short-lived evolutionary experiment. I wish to prove him wrong.
Passion overrules Reason... if you want it to. If your mind is staked against something ("We cannot risk war. It will not happen. Period."), Reason will be the ultimate law. If your mind is not made up ("I don't want to go to war, but if I do... it'll be really great to see those fuckers get what they deserve.") Passion has already won.
We don't have to be animals.
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