So i was thinking about history the other day, no particular history in general, but i was having a discussion with my two buddies and we were talking about wars. We talked about how countries have always invaded or conquered other country's which obviously lead to armed conflicts which in turn lead to war.
So, roughly, it started with the Greeks and Romans right? They went around conquering Asia and the Middle East, sparking conflict everywhere. Then it was the English in the middle ages, the British Empire conquered countries all over the world, which in turn cause more conflict and fighting as nations would resist occupation and being conquered. Then, jumping forward in time, there were the first and second world wars, although the second was ignited by a assignation it still ended up that Germany ( or the third Reich ) was trying to take over Europe. Jumping forward yet again, there were the most recent Iraq wars, were the United States invaded Iraq, for there natural resources. What can be next in our future? obviously more fighting, will there be a Galactic Empire (united states i would guess) that takes over all the planets, and have to fight against a small band of Rebels (excuse the star wars reference, but it does make sense when you think about it). So the point that i seem to be getting at is that all throughout time the country or nation that has been in the position of power has always tried to conquer everything around it. Could this be because of our instinctive evolutionary behaviour of being savage and aggressive has just never left, that no matter how much we evolve we just cant shake that 'caveman attitude' that is buried deep down in our very core. I'll use an example i got from the news paper this morning. In Haiti after being utterly brought to its knees by that earthquake, people have started looting for supplies, one man was caught by the people and was bound with rope, beaten by a crowd then set on fire and left in the street. This pretty much shows that if us as humans can be broken down enough, we will show our instinctual aggression.
And if you look at it in a different picture, of things happening already at different times, our weather goes through cycles, were it gets warmer and colder than normal, like the ice age etc. just not to the extent of all the chemicals that are being released into our atmosphere. This sparks one more question. What if civilization already happened before and ended up destroying its self, like 2012 happened for them, which brought them back down to the stone age. Then we developed as humans. But that's a question for another time
p.s. excuse the historical inaccuracy,
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ReplyDeleteWell David Hume's theory of constant conjunction sort of deals with this in that it states that one event follows another event though due to no known causation. He more clearly defines this in his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Section VIII of liberty and Necessity Part 1 by stating the following : "It is universally acknowledged that there is great uniformity among the actions of men, in all nations and ages, and that human nature remains still the same in its principles and operations.The same motives always produce the same actions: the same events follow fom the same causes." A clear example of this would be the first and second world war as they were started by very similar causes such as German Nationalism and pride.
ReplyDeleteA good question and my favorite 'Politics'. You mentioned about powerful countries invading powerless countries and why is it the way it is?
ReplyDeleteEverything has a starting and ending point, we as human beings cannot do anything about it. Put wars, hunger, poverty, destruction all these human made things on the side, just talk about Global Warming. We feel guilty about the horrible things we've done to our planet. I personally believe, that the planet has been thru allot of worst things than us, been thru earth quakes, volcanoes, architectonics, solar flairs and we think some plastic bags. The point i am getting at is this. We just can't stop 2012, that the planet will be here and we will be long gone.
I like this post, it is very real to what is present and questionable.
ReplyDeleteOur bodies are still just machines that function through instinct. Moods can change at the drop of a hat and our buttons can be pressed. Specifically to Haiti, the the loss, pain, suffering, starvation, betrayals, and overall stress and despair, trauma, and all kind of disruptions in our habitual existence can cause a ripple affect of animal tendencies to surface. You are right, if pushed and hard enough we will show our instinctual aggression.
In regards to war, my grandma always quoted Churchill, who possibly quoted poet and philosopher George Santayana,"Those who forget history are damned to repeat it." I do not think anyone has forgotten their history, but I do think that they have not reflected on the trickery of their knowledge in the past. Quine would agree that wars are caused due to the lack of reflection on the past. Most of Europe colonized for so many years, and they brought slavery to many countries. They conquered and now have left (somewhat). In my opinion, because they are so old and know that times have changed (this is a non- political standpoint, and pieced together bits of information). However, in my opinion the United States is young and powerful, believing that they can do anything (as Europe was). Their values have not evolved and they are still power hungry.
Nevertheless; some of the war in the Middle East does involve much of the world, so there still remains (and will probable always remain)a glitch in the balance of the world.
"What if civilization already happened before and ended up destroying its self, like 2012 happened for them, which brought them back down to the stone age."
ReplyDeleteI guess we better work on time capsules, before it's too late :] It's an interesting idea, I don't really know what to say except for this:
You say that there's probably going to be more wars in the future, because it always escalated to that in the past. I don't believe there will e a WW3. At least I don't believe it is going to be as severe as the last 2. Why? Because we're evolving so much as a society, a nation... We've become so open-minded and accepting, I think we're going in the right direction.
I just hope it isn't to waste if the world ends in 2012 :]
The world does seem to move in cycles, the economy grows and regresses, countries go form left leaning to right leaning etc. . . It could be that the things which have already happen are constantly conjoined with the future. For example, Britain colonized India, and then the people of India grew upset with Britain which made them throw out the British. So Britain colonizing India was constantly Conjoined with India rejecting Britain.
ReplyDelete@ genuinely
I agree WW3 won't happen, especially with the internet and multinational companies, immigration. The worlds smaller, and people are closer, how could we split it into two again? whenever there's a disaster all sorts of viewpoints are readily available at our fingertips as well as photos. We would know who the fighting would devastate, because we can see what goes on in the world now.