War isn't a part of human nature.

If it were, the phrase "war is hell" would not be true, because we would live for combat and feel at home in a war setting. The truth is that war is an instrument of small minded but very powerful people who use it to obtain even more power for themselves. These are people who were exposed to power and become addicted to it before they had a chance to develop their imaginations, expand their minds, and become aware of the higher needs of humankind.

They are such sad and empty people that they think that by obtaining more and more of the same thing (power), they will feel fulfilled. By the end of their lifespan, they die unhappy and so do the thousands of unnamed individuals who died fighting for the personal struggles of the powerful. This is true in war settings but also the corporate settings, where the selfish and greedy struggle to accept themselves for their power while they're impoverished workers struggle not only psychologically but physically. Power is an addiction, but unlike the heroin addict who suffers his or herself, the person caught in it's throes takes many lives with them.

I believe that human beings do not live for war, they live to love and to aid one another to appreciate the joys of love. Nothing feels better than to love and to feel loved. In comparison war is a soul numbing and desensitizing experience that only leaves a wake of physical and psychological destruction in it's wake.

Was war once a part of human nature? I say no: at the point when we developed imaginations capable of costructing peaceful alternatives, war became obsolete. I'd imagine that this moment came very early in the evolution of the homo sapien.

We've been experiencing ignorant bloodshed for thousands and thousands of years but the excuses end here. With the advent of the internet, relatively high literacy rates (and we still need to work on that globally) and readily available information, there is no reason for this tremendously costly and immature game to continue.

Spread the word while we're still breathing.

 

Although I agree with your sentiments for the most part, I think you aught distinguish between what we "live for" and what is "human nature". I totally agree than nobody (or very few people) live for war, but the fact that we do it - and have been doing it for millennia - shows that it is somehow interwoven into our nature. We don't want to hate, but unfortunately hate is a part of our nature. We don't want to feel sad, or scared, or ashamed, but these are states of mind we all experience - and not just once or twice in a lifetime, but very often. They are a part of our nature whether we want them or not.


If I can read between the lines of your post, however, I think I can pull out a sentiment that I can easily agree with. Whether or not war is a part of our nature, I agree wholeheartedly that it must be part of our nature too to despise war. So we must nurture this aspect of our nature and allow whatever aspect leads us to war to wither away. I believe this can be done, but not just by counting on the fact that we don't want war. Serious changes need to be made by us to ourselves.

 

I love you too

 

You seem to be awfully threatened by homosexuality. Usually only those who are in denial about their own sexuality feel threatened by the sexuality of others.

To the OP: your post is mature and well-said. I understand your point and fully agree with you.

 

yes i agree it is well said. mature and to the point. peace & love.

 

The parts of war that are intrinsic with human nature are the need to feel accepted (by gathering power and an identity) and aggression (which can be achieved through competitive play in the place of war).

War caters to base needs, not the higher ones. And any needs that war fulfills can be gathered through other sources.

We do not need war!

 

yes it is. i have read some of your other posts and believe they are all very well said. keep it up. impressive

 

i do agree with some of your opinions, but i do think that war is part of human nature. when we become frusterated with another human, for whatever reason, our instinct is to inflict pain upon them to prove a point. i do think war can and should be avoided. problems can easily be solved without conflict or loss of lives.

lately i've tried to distinguish what is part of our human nature, or what is simply an action imprinted by our society (such thoughts probly arose through use of psychedelics, but that's besides the point) and to a certain extent war is imprinted by society, people that grow up knowing nothing but violence certainly are more prone to violence. but if you look at the animal kingdom, whether an animal has grown up in a violent environment or not, they are aware of how to defend themself and fight back. territorial animals become violent when another animal enters its space and attacks, which is a basic technique in war.

it is all possible that war is not human nature and is simply a technique that the human race adopted from animals during the early years of our existance and have carried on into modern society

i am not a psychologist (although i do take psychology) and these are not much more than a few animal facts intertwined with personal opinion and observation. no quotes please.

 

That's how I think about it as well.

 

I disagree with what you say, but I will fight to the death to defend your right to tell such lies.

 

Whether violence is a part of human nature or not is difficult to determine. Some humans are more aggressive than others. Natural selection doesn't necessarily favor the more aggressive over those who are more intelligent or cooperative so who's to say that evolution made us violent. The bottom line is that whether we are naturally aggressive or not, unlike animals, we have the power to CHOOSE between violence(hurting others) or non-violence in any given situation. Almost anybody may explode under the right (or wrong) circumstances (stress). Practicing non-violence is a discipline that eventually leads us to higher levels of compassion, love, happiness, fulfillment, etc. Luckily it's something we can all do to make the world a better place and make our own lives personally better. Non-violence is logical, habit forming and communicable. Spread the word.

 

i'm glad someone brought up the factor of choice, we are capable of choosing whether or not to be violent, but i don't think it's the bottom line in this discussion, it's not a topic of whether or not to USE violence, but whether or not war is part of human nature

question still stands

 

Hey, I didn't mean that violence wasn't a part of human nature but that WAR isn't. Violence (or aggression, is what is the true root of it here, violence is just the result of aggression) and war are not one in the same in my opinion. War is a very contrived and organized act of aggression, not necessarily a hot headed "you tried to kill me, so I'm gonna protect myself" thing. War is very political and more about obtaining power than simple animal urges, or at least as I see it.

Aggression is obviously a function of human nature, and even that can be overridden by the power of free will. War though, is entirely more complex.

 

i dont get why you would go out of your way to join the hip forums and just say rude comments. there really is no point.
go spread your bad vibes somewhere else.

 

I can see it. This might have been how wars started in pre-historic times, but in today's world, wars are started after careful and prolonged deliberations by politicians sitting around tables going over the pros and cons insofar as they effect a wide variety of things - such as social welfare, economics, industry, ecology, the future course of world politics, and yes - even the repercussions their own personal career and reputation will incur. In today's world, it's all strategy and game playing.

 

War is not a catalyst of aggression; aggression is a catalyst of war.

In my opinion, war is as natural as any other human tradition. Also, the benefit of war, like famines and diseases, is that it keeps the population of the Earth down and prevents over-crowding of the planet.

 

Righteously said.

 

Wow! Talk about seeing the silver lining .

 

that isn't the question,
the question is whether or not war is human nature, not whether or not modern war is political.

everything stated in that post is talking about MODERN society, the second sentence is "this might have been how wars started in prehistoric times" which is exactly what this is about, the war tactics of modern society have very little to do with this discussion