Has it not always been this way

For the last 6000 years of recorded history has not our existence been filled with war. If the bible is correct war between the first two older brothers of a clan right on through to today. It would seem all we really have to look forward too is wars, hospital beds, and the grave yard.

Because these things are as sure as the sun

a reply to: ChesterJohn

Or you can ignore the negativity and focus on the positives. Too many people obsess over bad stuff then wonder why they feel miserable.

It reminds me of one of my ex girlfriends. 10 good things could happen to her & 1 bad thing, and she'd obsess over the bad thing. Or I could do 20 good things & 1 wrong thing, and she'd complain about the 1 wrong thing. I'm convinced people like that don't actually want to be happy, so they look for reasons to be unhappy.

Same with wars & the original post. You're choosing to ignore the positive parts of life, like good foods, friends, love, music, natural landscapes, jokes, etc.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

Yes we've always been killing each other. In fact we've become extremely good at it with all the practice. So in that sense it's always been this way.

The big difference as far as I'm concerned however, is that we have now become so technologically advanced also that the amount of damage we can do is greater than we've ever had, or at least greater than any recorded history we know of.

Throughout history we've always created armies that could wipe out whole civilizations and wipe out entire cultures. But it still took some time and a lot of work. Now we got Nukes and Biological and Chemical weapons that are capable of doing damage far beyond what is even rational, even for war. Space based weapons are also happening more and more too.

This puts far greater power in our hands than ever before and far greater power than we should have access to. That is the real difference between then and now.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

I know a gal like that. Her Name is My Wife...

a reply to: ChesterJohn

News of today does not really report on happy stories. The find a war, and report on it. This is the same in every city block. People will start talking more about one person that got killed that 10 people that got married the same day.

It all goes back to priorities and what you focus on!

a reply to: SyxPak

Hehe! Well Syx, I think most people are like that. Over the years we got programed to focus on the bad, and ignore the good.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

The visceral experience of the Earth dweller.....

Its all part of the ride.

originally posted by: IndependentOpinion
a reply to: SyxPak

Hehe! Well Syx, I think most people are like that. Over the years we got programed to focus on the bad, and ignore the good.

"over the years" would be millions of years of evolution, and "we" would be all creatures that came before us.

We focus on the "bad" because it is a threat. Focusing on threats is what kept your ancestors alive. You are the most recent in a chain of a long list of survivors.

Yep, our species is a pretty violent one. Not only are we good at killing, but we are extremely creative about it in many cases

There is evil in the world-plan accordingly.

a reply to: mavra81

very true

I never meant to imply there are no happy times life is full of them.

The point is it seems that war or fighting right from the beginning has been the road of man kind.

The only way to change man is not by changing his environment but by changing his heart.

The first battle between two brothers was not because of a physical need but because one was jealous of the other.

As long as men are focused on the survival of the fittest and the what is in it for me to damn with everyone else there will be war.

The me can be races of people, sexual preferences, gender grouping, country of origin.

Higher authority of which we are responsible and a clean slate is one way of starting to change the heart.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

"Survival of the fittest" is the problem im my opinion. Believing that is in our "evolutionary makeup" is the reason for thinking that war, murder and fighting is the only way to get ahead.

Many people believe that its normal "animal behaviour".

A reply to: IndependentOpinion

I believe they think that too

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

It is interesting to note that Hitler was following evolutionary thinking in "survival of the fittist", so dit the two guys in the Columbine High School massacre, and even Pol Pot in Cambodia was using evolution as bases for his massacre.

a reply to: IndependentOpinion

LOL That Man!! I do try to stay on the positive side usually though Bud. I have had many years of the bad and don't need to jkeep thinking about it! LOL!! I have a new story in amn. Called RAGE! Check it out! LAter Bud!

a reply to: IndependentOpinion

Evolutionary thinking would relate more with dispatching threats, and then resuming the seeking of entropy.

Animals are active when the need is there, and inactive when it is not.

I wouldn't think it "survival of the fittest" when it is not a fight of neccesity. 2 bears going at it over a piece of salmon....survival of the fittest can be used to describe that. But a lunatic killing other people for no reason other than personal preference....there is nothing evolutionary about that.

Nothing in evolution supports killing without reason. Because the risk of losing that fight is death....fighting for sport is a human trait.

That said: i have a belief that a major purpose of existing is to learn to allow the intellectual to overcome the animal. While sport fighting may be a human trait, it arises from the juxtaposition of intelligence driving a being that is prone to the whims of neurochemical response. Even worse is the intelligence that lacks the insight to combat the neurochemical response with logic.

Ever heard a song (I think it was by pete seegar) called "where have all the flowers gone" it was relevant in the 60s as much as now. Listen to it and take in the words. They are your answer in a nut shell.

Well, we apparently most closely related to chimps, which are known as a species for being extremely violent to their own kind. There are multiple examples of a group chimpanzees coordinating attacks against other chimps--usually a group of males ganging up on a single male and beating him to death.

I think it's very likely that humans as a species have always tended towards violence for largely evolutionary reasons. The most violent and ruthless tribe was likely to eventually defeat and absorb less violent tribes and it was their genes and ideologies that were passed on. The fact that humans had higher reasoning abilities on meant that if questioned we could think of of ways to justify what we where doing (religion, sub-humanness or other group, us or them, etc). Add that to how readily many people obey authority figures, even when those authorities are telling them to do awful things, and it really isn't that surprising that we've done such horrible things to each other throughout history.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Hitler user it to "preserve the ultimate race", and the School shooting was targeted towards people the shooters deamed "does not deserve to have survived the evolutionary race".

So yes, survival of the fittest was used.