War

"War, what is it good for?" - Edwin Starr

Throughout history mankind has sought control over everything. Resources, people, land etc.

Why?

Definitively, no one can really say.

However, it seems to me that war is a necessary part of human existence because of this incessant need to control things. Humanity has waged war for centuries. Before Christ, after, during... Meaning it isn't an entirely new idea to us.

From day one of human interaction we found ourselves in a tangled web that hadn't even been spun yet.

Thomas Hobbes wrote a book called Leviathan and while its not the entire idea I'm attempting to get at, it is very much relevant. In this book, Hobbes described humans as being 'selfish beasts.'

To a point, man is always looking out for number one. Always has, always will. The interesting thing here is that somewhere along the line we broke free of our solitude. We became social creatures that formed tribes and cities. Man was from then on not only looking out for himself, but also his kin.

This is where the idea of war becomes a reality. One tribe wants the heard that another tribe is hunting. Tribe one decides that they're going to try to eliminate the competition. The competition then has to defend themselves and overcome whatever odds they face because if they don't, they are eliminated.

Those are the basic principles of war and why war is waged but that isn't what I'd most like to discuss. I've noticed something about war and it has presented a piece of humanities' preprogrammed sensibilities.

Man kind is and always has been a creature of adaptation. Adaptation leads to growth, and with growth comes prosperity. War is an instrument of nature that we haven't seemed to overcome so we continually adapt to it. The adaptation that occurs with war is almost like a natural purge of the human race. Those who can't adapt and evolve die. Those who do continue on with their lives, in and out of conflict. Darwin proposed his theory of evolution to show that evolution is a natural process by which species adapt to their surroundings to survive. While his theory remains a theory, it does seem to hold water and can be seen in other applications as mentioned above.

I personally believe that war is a good thing for humanity. Not for control, not for resources, not for dominance, but to better our species. No matter how ignorant the reasons for war might be, war itself teaches and reminds us that we are not invulnerable, or that we're not above nature. We have learned to bargain with nature to do things like building dams and waterways, but even those things can be overwhelmed when nature decides we've gone far enough.

Mission Statement

I intend to learn as much about humanity as possible and in doing so discuss every topic of interest along the way. The road I have chosen leads down a path that splits into subjectivity at every opportunity though I must meet every fork and choose to continue with objectivity and understanding. Subject matter will include anything and everything relating to humanities existence, ergo Politics, Science, Religion, Nature etc.

I had traversed this path once before but I lost my way somewhere between the mind shattering questions and my reality collapsing around me. I do not intend to let this happen again. I have since learned that some questions have no answers and that to find the answers to them I have to let them go.

Scientia Intelligendo Verum

Knowledge, Understanding, Truth.