On the front cover of this week ‘s Economist is a picture of man holding a rocket propelled grenade (RPG), with a headline (referencing Libya) that reads “Where does this end?”
My – ahem, cough – liberal/progressive friends acost me and say “We have to end war now!”, and make other similar demands for the global reformation of humanity. Wishful thinking will get you nowhere.
“Where does this end?”
It doesn’t.
We cannot end war, crime, greed, cruelty, etc.
To believe otherwise is to ignore either evolution or our creation.
If you believe in God, you have to believe the religious histories that tells us acts of human evil have been committed since Adam’s first lie to God about the fruit. Murder has been with us since at least Cain, if not earlier.
If you do not believe in God, the anthropological records show human crimes against their brethren going back millennia.
Biologically the instinct for survival and drive to commit aggressive or violent acts is seated in the very earliest – evolutionarily speaking – part of our brains.
To be blunt – humans are programmed to commit atrocities in the name of self-preservation. Humanity is basically evil when described from the aspirational mindset of peace, love and harmony. Admittedly, many acts are perpetrated out of motives not directly connected to survival, but the fact remains – the capacity is a biological default not an aberration.
The more developed parts of our brain allow us to control (usually) acting on these baser impulses, but the impulses are still there, and not going away.
I will admit that there are individuals who are capable of denying these basic impulses even if it leads to their death. I’m not one of them, and – if you’re honest with yourself – you probably aren’t either. I would kill an attacker to survive. I would kill an attacker to protect those I love.
Issuing a blanket edict to end war, crime, or other entrenched behaviors is no less non-sensical than telling people we shouldn’t defecate because we’re polluting the environment. It runs counter to both biologically programmed behaviors and environmentally learned behaviors.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t act to minimize these harmful activities, I’m saying trying solve a problem by expecting an irrational outcome will get you nowhere.
Certain wars can end (certain conflicts in Africa and Asia come to mind) but not wars the likes of those we’re watching now in the middle and near east. These are much more deeply ingrained than our 200 year old country and even younger mentality can grasp ahold of. We’re talking thousands of years of hatred built up, it’s not going away…ever.