Do violent conflicts have to be an integral part of human culture?
By John Horgan
Scientific findings prove that no matter how far back in time we go, we will always find evidence of violence in human history and prehistory. This is the bad news brought by 17 researchers from the field of anthropology and other fields, who participated in a conference on "The Evolution of Human Aggression: Lessons for Today's Conflicts", held at the end of February 2009 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The good news is that there is much that can be done to reduce violent conflict in the world today. Or as Frans B. M. de Waal of Emory University, who participated in the conference, put it: It is not the "destiny" of human beings to "eat by the sword forever."
De Waal, who studies primates (apes), reported that his observations of deadly encounters between groups of chimpanzees, our closest genetic relatives, confirmed the fatalistic belief that "war is ingrained in our genes." But de Waal also said that the chimpanzees "seek peace": they reconcile after the fight with hugs, kisses on the hand and mouth, caring for each other and sharing food. De Waal explained that humans do this too, and as evidence he presented a picture of John McCain and George W. Bush embracing, despite the horrifyingly forced smiles adorning their faces, after their bitter internal election battle in 2000.
According to De Waal, the parties reconcile "when it becomes clear to them that they will be hurt if their relationship continues to deteriorate." His observations show that chimpanzees from groups that compete with each other for territory, and therefore treat each other with deadly hostility, almost never reconcile. But in humans, "interdependence between groups or nations is not uncommon." In order to promote peace, he suggests that countries adopt mutual economic dependence, with the help of alliances like the one that exists in the European Union. Although the European Union "did not make the Germans and the French love each other," as de Waal himself admits, it greatly reduced the chances of war in Europe.
Richard Wrangham, an anthropologist from Harvard University, agreed with de Waal and said that violence in primates is not compulsive or "instinctive", but is "largely influenced by the context in which they operate". One of the clearest precursors of violence between two primate groups, Wrangham postulates, is a situation of unbalanced forces. Chimpanzees from one group will always attack individuals from another group if the attackers have a huge numerical advantage and therefore minimal risk of dying or being injured.
Wrangham claims that although humans are less risk-averse than chimpanzees, human societies, from hunter-gatherers to modern nations such as the United States, do the same. Rival teams are much more aggressive when they are confident of victory. Creating a balance of power between countries may reduce the chance of war.
And so does controlling population size, according to anthropologist Polly Wisner of the University of Utah. Wisner is an expert on the Enga tribe who used to raise agricultural crops and pigs in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. They started fighting each other about 200 years ago, after they started growing sweet potatoes, which resulted in food surpluses and rapid population growth. The death rate moderated after the tribal elders instituted stricter war laws, such as banning the killing of women or mutilation.
The penetration of modern medicine into the Hanga tribe about 25 years ago reduced child mortality, which led to a new "youth burst" and an increase in tribal conflicts. The death rate has soared, according to Wisner, because the Anga now fight with rifles and machine guns instead of clubs, knives and spears - the tribe's traditional weapons. Moreover, young hired killers known as "ramboys" hire out their services to the tribes in exchange for money, young women or booty. Wisner raises the possibility that reducing the birth rate and giving young men "possibilities for significant progress in life" will reduce violence.
The climate also has its share of violence. This conclusion emerges from Patricia Lambert's research on the Chumash tribe, a hunter-gatherer society that lived on the coast of Southern California for thousands of years until European settlers arrived. Many Chumesh skeletons show signs of violence, such as skull fractures and arrowheads and spearheads stuck in the skeleton. According to Lambert, an anthropologist at the University of Utah, an examination of tree rings and other evidence indicates that violence among the Chumesh increased during times of drought.
Lambert wishes to draw our attention to the fact that droughts, which may increase due to global warming, are already causing conflicts around the world today. To substantiate her claim, she pulls out a picture of a well in Somalia. So far 250 Somalis have been killed in battles for control of this well. To prevent such conflicts, says Lambert, governments must ensure a fair distribution of water and other resources.
The most optimistic lecturer was the psychologist Steven Pinker, who claimed, unlike many scientists in the past, that the level of violence today is much lower than it was at the time when modern states began to form 10,000 years ago. Pinker explained that according to ethnographic surveys and archaeological evidence, 30% or more of people in tribal societies died as a result of group violence. This rate is ten times higher than the number of Europeans and North Americans killed in wars and related events during the bloody 20th century.
Pinker suggests several possible reasons for this. First, due to our long life expectancy we are less willing to risk our lives in violent activity. Second, the creation of stable governments with effective legal systems and police forces brought an end to what the British philosopher Thomas Hobbes described as "all-out war", a situation that prevailed in tribal societies before the beginning of the state era. And finally, mass media and tourism have improved the understanding and empathy we have for people who are not part of our family or even our nation. This is probably the best news: Civilization, often blamed for causing wars, is actually helping us achieve peace.
John Horgan is the Director of the Center for Science Writing at the Stevens Institute of Technology.
44 תגובות
Father, the editor of the site, I think the last comment should be removed due to the profanity.
Judaism is indeed less bad than Islam and slaughter less than Christianity
Yoel Moshe:
You are a fucking loser. You were born. Your parents fucked you. Understand that the world is beautiful. You were a happy and innocent child
You grew up and realized you didn't
You said so what let's join the party
You just have no backbone
Unlike the people who said no
I won't bear your hatred one step further
free i will rise!!!!
Personally, I always see a utopian reality
Because in a reality like ours there is no point in fighting a war that never ends, there is no point in a temporary victory
At least I think so
I understand that I am a dreamer but at least I strive for perfection
And what exactly is that?
wake up too late
After all, it is clear that there is an awareness of the crap floating around us
There is simply no desire to recognize her
And just to complete, Sarah:
If you read my words to the end and didn't explode to answer before you finished reading, you would see that my opinion about the other religions is no better.
In fact, I think that Judaism is usually less bad than them.
Sarah:
Maybe learn some Judaism? Your answer shows ignorance!
Please read some of the punishments of stoning that Rambam wrote about (among other things - for a male bed):
http://kodesh.snunit.k12.il/i/5101.htm#s14
Now I will bring before you as a telegraphic list some of the punishments of the Torah. Note that these are many punishments that not only do not require a Sanhedrin, but that the authority and in fact the duty to carry them out is given to an individual and even a court is not necessary:
Blood revenge for killing a relative:
"And the redeemer of the blood found him outside the border of the city of refuge and the redeemer of the blood killed the murderer, he has no blood (in the desert, La; 27).
A priest's daughter who commits adultery will be burned in the fire:
"And the daughter of a priest, because she begins to commit adultery with her father, she commits adultery with fire and will be burned" (Leviticus, 9:XNUMX).
The one who bows to the sun and the moon is stoned to death:
"And you shall bring out that man or that woman who did this evil thing to your gates, that man or that woman, and stone them to death" (Deuteronomy, 5:XNUMX).
Violating Shabbat is punishable by death:
"And you kept the sabbath because it is holy to you. Those who desecrate it die a day because everyone who does it is a work and that soul is cut off from among its people" (Exodus, no; 14).
The wife of a man who commits adultery, the punishment for adulterers is death:
And a man who commits adultery with the wife of a man who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife shall die the death of the adulterer and the adulterer" (Leviticus, 10:XNUMX).
And there are many priests in the laws of the Torah, as a rule the majority of the world's population is sentenced to death according to the laws of the Torah; Other worshipers of God, who disbelieve in divine revelation, and crimes of adultery and indecency.
Sages gave a list of those who owe the death penalty - according to Sages there are four types of death penalties: stoning with stones, strangulation with a garment, killing by beheading with a sword, burning.
Sages sorted out the acts for which the various punishments were given and wrote them in the Sanhedrin treatise and set aside entire chapters for them to explain the punishment and its method and who and who is liable, etc.:
"These are the charges: the one who brings the mother, the father's wife, the bride, the one who remembers, and the animal, and the woman who brings the animal, the one who blasphemes, the one who commits idolatry, the one who gives his seed to the king, and the one who has obscenity and knowledge, the one who desecrates the Sabbath, the one who curses his father and his mother, and the one who brings About the betrothed girl, and the instigator and the washerwoman, and the sorcerer, and a disobedient son and a teacher,..." (Mishnah, Tract Sanhedrin, Chapter XNUMX, Mishna XNUMX).
"And these are the burnings that come upon a woman and her daughter, and the priest's daughter who committed adultery... and these are the slain by the murderer, and the people of a rejected city by a murderer who struck his neighbor with a stone or an iron" (Mishna, Tractate Sanhedrin, Chapter XNUMX, Mishna XNUMX).
"These are the Hanankin who strike his father and his mother and steal a soul from Israel and an old man from Mera according to the court and the false prophet and who prophesies in the name of star worship and who brought on a man's wife and plotters daughter of a priest and a prostitute who strikes his father and his mother" (Mishnah, Tractate Sanhedrin, Chapter XNUMX, Mishna XNUMX).
An example of the cultural norm in the past is the personal testimony of Joseph ben Matthew about himself cutting off a bandit's hand and asking him to hang it around his neck, a Jew who lived in the first century AD and thus he writes: "The goat in the band of bandits [the people of Tiberias] came to me, and I tormented him with whips and ordered him to cut off one of his hands And to hang it on his neck and after that his divorces from my face" (Book: "Hay Yosef" Masada Publishing House, Tel Aviv p. Kelo - Kelz).
Since the destruction of the Temple and the abolition of the Sanhedrin (the courts authorized to impose death sentences) the authority to punish was given to the discretion of the court, to beat, excommunicate, excommunicate and even kill. This is how it is explained in the Talmud: "R. Elazar ben Ya'akov: I heard that the Sabbath prepares punishments that are not from the Torah, and not to transgress the words of the Torah but to make a caveat to the Torah; And the act of one man who rode a horse on the Sabbath in the days of pigeons, and they brought him to court and stoned him, not because he deserved it, but because the time needed it. . And again the case of one man who slapped his wife [a husband's wife] under the fig tree, and they brought him to court and flogged him, not because he deserved it - but because the time needed it [even though the written law does not require flogging, the court required flogging so that the burglaries would not increase]!" (Yavmot Z.A.B.).
There is another type of death penalty that is given only to the individual and not to the courts, and is practiced even in our time defined in the language of the Sages "zealous people hurt him". An example of this is given in the Torah when Pinchas the priest killed Zimri who slept with the Midianites and pierced their bodies with a sword and for this he received a reward from God "Brit Olam" (Bamadbar, 7; 13-XNUMX).
Likewise, those who are subject to a "persecutive law" are allowed to be killed individually. This punishment actually applies in two cases: one who pursues to kill, and one who pursues to rape a woman, which is forbidden from a halachic point of view (note that the rape of a single woman does not apply to one who pursues, but only to a married woman).
The same applies to the permission to kill infidels and converts given to an individual, as written in the Shulchan Aruch:
"The people of Israel, and they are those who work for the worship of stars, or who commits offenses to anger, even (d) eat filth or wear clothing that causes anger; And the heretics, and they who disbelieve in Torah and prophecy from Israel, used to riot in the Land of Israel. If he had the strength to fight with a sword, with a sword, they were killed. And if not, he would come in plots until he was killed. How, one of them saw that he had fallen into the well and the ladder was in the well, first and removed it and said: I was busy getting my son off the roof and I will bring him back to you, and the like in these words (Shulchan Aruch Yorah Deah Siman Kanah Section B).
Maybe learn some Judaism. Your answer shows ignorance!
What does unbelievers mean? What is the meaning of Shabbat space? And who even has the right to judge Judaism? and so'
In any case, it has been about 2000 years (since the abolition of the Sanhedrin) that there is no permit for a Jewish court to kill (and why? There is something to be learned here...), so killing for a religious reason has not been part of Judaism for a long time.
And who wants to and can count the number of people killed "for a religious reason" in the last 2000 years by Christians, Muslims, Hindus and other religions.
Eran. C:
Since Judaism states that Shabbat breakers and infidels must be eliminated - it does not seem to me that hatred can disappear as long as Judaism exists.
Religions, in general, are one of the main causes of wars and gratuitous hatred.
Until we stop fearing, hating, that jealousy disappears from the world and we insist on the phrase "love your neighbor as yourself" wars will continue.
In the last days, according to the Bible, all wars will cease.
God will come to judge the land and then peace will come to everyone.
According to what is written in Isaiah (chapter XNUMX verse XNUMX): "And beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and nation shall not lift a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
An artist soon nowadays.
The article is confused and contains internal contradictions. On the one hand, she claimed that the cause of the violence/wars is an extensive supply of food and abundance[=,,In the abundance of the good, many eaters"] and on the other hand, the argument of the well from Somalia according to which hunger and scarcity are the causes of violent struggle. The speakers consistently ignore the ability of human culture to process and assimilate habits that are originally an existential need/necessity for culture. Just like there is no one point explanation for the eating culture of the western man who devours calories and junk food to fatigue, but this is a fact. Even worse, some of those consumption habits are documented as "high gastronomic culture". I am no longer talking about moral aspects such as the systematic elimination of pointless animals, etc. In our case, the culture of war was developed by the human race into a form of collective expression that goes far beyond existential needs. But Man Dhu already said - just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean I'm not being chased. Those who are too lazy to contain their utopian vision and ambitions on reality may wake up to a painful reality and sometimes too late. Therefore it is recommended to strive for a world where a wolf lives with a lamb, but always maintain the abilities of a wolf.
Ron,
There was a super unfortunate mistake in your last comment. shadow:
Nothing has been proven - everything is a blatant lie
Noam, nothing has been disproved - this is a blatant lie.
Sad conclusions indeed.
Today, with the lowering of economic borders and barriers and the transformation of the world into a "global village", physical wars are decreasing since there are common economic interests, but this is also quite unfortunate and humiliating to think that because of greed for money and economic interest man finally agreed to put down his sword (and not because of altruism or enlightenment) .
Another thing, physical violence and verbal violence are not that different. In the modern world we have found a way to move the duel from outside to a little more aesthetic realms. Now instead of physically grappling in the field and spilling the blood of our opponents, we do it on the TV background and instead of a sword, we use our mouths. It is enough to open the Knesset channel to witness our aggressive and warlike side. Even the entertainment programs provide us with plenty of violence, evil, intrigues and endless wars - not physical, but verbal.
Yoav,
It seems that you also need to use logic sometimes.
It is one thing to fabricate propaganda about weapons of mass destruction, in order to justify an attack on Iraq. It's a completely different thing, and completely illogical, to kill thousands of Americans to justify one attack or another.
No one claims that there are no conspiracies at all, but one should be careful not to use the imagination overtime, as it may lead to an absurd world view.
Why go so far into unproven conspiracies like the Pentagon story. It is now known to everyone that the USA went to war in Iraq with the incredible argument of having weapons of mass destruction, this was their only justification. Which of course was a complete lie, a lie shared by most of the leadership.
This conspiracy has already been proven, and if there was a conspiracy here, that means government planning to knowingly lie to the public and present a false reason for the war. Why shouldn't there be more conspiracies like this?
Ron,
The Pentagon conspiracy has also been completely and thoroughly debunked a long time ago, you probably don't go to websites whose conclusion you don't like.
Belief in conspiracies is similar to religious belief: the believers do not let the facts confuse them, and this mental need to distort reality to make it more interesting and mysterious is usually stronger than any logical reasoning.
All in all, who am I to try to spoil your enjoyment of this occupation...
to Michael Rothschild. Thanks for the response, I agree with every word, and I wish Lennon's words would come true. Unfortunately, the fundamentalist indoctrination in favor of lamia and religious extremism works overtime in every country in a covert and overt way, and especially in countries that are in conflict zones. Anthem, flag and other symbols, immigration laws, etc. are only a small part of the mechanisms that preserve the status quo, and all of these are backed by the bloody history of human culture, but this aspect related to wars, is still in its infancy.
ok father
Last response to the topic from me, there's no point in arguing.
Noam go to the second part of the article about the events of 911, the bottom part "Questions and Answers"
What you said about the "refutations" gets a nice answer.
And also watch the new movie about the Pentagon - it is impossible that the plane was the one that hit the building. According to the testimony of law enforcement officers on the plane's flight path
And according to the black box that was "found" in the ruins, but its data shows that the plane flew over the Pentagon without hitting it.
Noam, I'm one step ahead of you.
And I answered you very nicely.
It seems the site owner has decided to freeze some of my comments
Although there is only one link in them
Or you fell prey to RKOwens4 YouTube videos
please
9/11 Debunkers: Meet RKOwens4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ-wo_AH9-U
They didn't disprove anything - it's just a smokescreen
Or a series of answer clips for dibenkers:
The 9/11 Un-debunked Series
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D97E5AC28710089F
In my opinion, the article is a bit striped because it takes a very broad topic and tries to discuss it by referring to specific points without seeing the whole and the synergistic effect between its parts.
If all the respect I pay to de Waal (I enjoyed his books) there are "more serious" researchers (whose conflicts between human groups are their specialty) who present much more interesting and accurate theories (which are partly based on empirical experiments) such as Levin and Campbell's realist conflict theory, identity theory the social and other more contemporary theories that integrate and develop them further, which were not mentioned in the article at all.
In any case, I don't necessarily agree with the article's conclusion that civilization conditioned violence within society. If only from the fact that until recently "violence" was a very limited concept that referred to the physical and measurable dimension of violence while neglecting other types of violence such as discrimination, economic violence, inequality and more that are much more difficult to measure.
Ron,
All the nonsense you mentioned has been tested and disproved. Try to visit other sites as well, which have made a habit of refuting stupid conspiracies, and at least you will have the option to choose. The links that you attach absolute importance to, and therefore take the trouble to bring them on the site, are known and known to the point of disgust.
I know there are people who look for conspiracies behind every tree and bush, and are convinced that everyone else is burying their heads in the sand, and only they see the real reality. Such people will never be convinced that the sunrise is not a conspiracy.
To Nadav, my last comment. If you're calling for saving the public's trust in science against all the darkness, a dark agenda, cheers to you.
The opinions of Michael and Roy are not extreme positions, unfortunately the reality is extreme, and the fact that it is impossible to describe the huge amount of New Age garbage that destroys every good plot. I am sorry that you believe that suicidal pluralism is the only pluralism that exists. And if you thought that the New Age does not cause harm - and how does it cause harm, then you will know how many wrong decisions made by Sherry Arison in consultation with angels and extraterrestrials have harmed the Israeli economy, and a more serious harm is that they make people not think that this science is important and do not prepare themselves in studies accordingly , anyone who goes to accounting or law entails the loss of a good brain that could have promoted science and with it the Israeli economy.
Yossi 2:
Indeed, the tendency of humans to divide into groups that fight each other is the source of most of our troubles.
Arthur Koestler wrote about this in his book The Ghost in the Machine.
John Lennon wrote the song Imagine about it.
http://www.lyricsdownload.com/beatles-imagine-lyrics.html
This is what was behind Einstein's initiative to establish a world government.
And this is the thing whose statement here has already brought me countless blasphemies from those who do not understand it.
What a wonderful world it could be here if humans did not create artificial boundaries that separate themselves and dissolve them in each other instead of struggling with the real problems that are common to all.
And nevertheless and accordingly, we will forever eat a sword.
No matter which truth we choose.
Well, father, your last response reflects precisely that the distance between our opinions is enormous, you start with the fact that everything depends on the preaching of violence and breaking the law, and you continue by saying that you would also ban the non-violent preaching of the New Age, and what is more worrying is that you imply that if it were not for the internet age, you would also support Burning books and obliterating different opinions and thoughts from the world, in light of your response I can understand how this site is artificially channeled and aimed at giving a platform to extreme views like Michael and Roy's, I have nothing more to add except the fact that I hope people will not be convinced by the dark agenda that is going on here Beneath the surface of scientific curiosity
Adam Red
Is logically -
1. It seems to you that it is possible to have cell phone calls above 30000 feet
Like the flight in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, when the technology only existed in 2006?
2. Do you think that a pilot with a Cessna license who all his instructors called him a shocking pilot - can
To hit the first floor of the Pentagon building, after a maneuver that advanced pilots say is almost impossible - and doesn't scratch the grass and leave a small hole in the wall of the building?
3. Do you think that 3 buildings completely collapse from marginal fires of burning furniture and office equipment, when the two twin towers turn two-thirds into microscopic dust?
4. Do you think that building 7 collapses in an almost free fall - even though no plane hit it?
5. It seems to you that they did not find even a DNA particle of 1000 victims in the ruins of the twins that remained (not much relative to the size of the building)
6. That some of the "hijacking" pilots were found alive in the Middle East countries after the attack?
Should I continue?
See the article on the Emet site otherwise.
Arrogance is not intelligence.
Ron, there is no such thing as Bin Laden. Black is white, truth is a lie, dead is alive.
The Twins would still be standing if the secret services in the US were not ready to sacrifice tens of thousands of their own people, in order to start a new war (it is true that "only" 3,000 were killed in the end, but on a normal day, tens of thousands worked at the Twins).
I remember that I once gave a lecture on the economic activity of one of the government bodies, in a specific intervention that it carries out to stabilize a certain market so that it does not collapse in an extreme crisis. It was in the early nineties.
The listeners in the audience did not know my background and were sure that I was someone from the academy. One of the students raised his hand and claimed that he knew that this activity aimed to undermine the economic stability in the State of Israel, no less. I asked him whether, logically, it seemed reasonable to him that a government body would set itself the goal of undermining economic stability in Israel. He answered me that there is evidence of this. At that point I told them that by chance, I was responsible for this activity and I don't remember that the instructions I received were related to trying to undermine the Israeli economy... That student jumped up as a winner and said "Of course you will deny!". In short, I couldn't convince him that I don't have a sister...
I saw that you did an article about the discovery of the thermal material that was discovered in the dust of the twins.
Well done.
But do you know this discovery?
A normal level of radiation measured in units called TU is - 20 units. Levels of over 1,000 T.U. were measured in the Twin Complex.
To get perspective, in the test fields at the height of the period of the American nuclear tests, levels of 2,000 TU were measured.
This figure was received by Dr. Ed Ward who for his mathematical calculations relied on information from the official sources:
The amount of tritium in the water - from the USGS tests in the Hanist report
The amount of water spilled - a report by the Port Authority
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EdWard-MD/message/141
Maybe you should see who are the serious people who don't believe the absurd official version
(Which is of course describing a conspiracy theory - only in a different way)
in order not to be deterred
Highly-Credible People
question 9/11
http://www.911summary.com/
So that you can see that I am not biased towards a certain site
but only to reveal the truth
See an article by the BBC itself
There is no international terrorist network named al-Qaeda:
BBC: al Qaeda Does Not Exist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqqUUPtJggI
It is enough to read a few seconds to see that this is a conspiracy theory. Anis believes that I have explained to you the difference between science and other truth. I have to write things that have been tested, and I have no problem with official versions.
Except that it took you 5 minutes to answer my response.
I directed you to a link in Hebrew with in-depth material but at the same time simple to read and watch.
You would see what fantasy you described.
If these are your beliefs (which are not based on the facts) - your site is completely untrustworthy.
Al-Qaeda was used as a "straw" force for operations in which the US was not allowed to be involved, either because of regional political sensitivity, or because these operations are in fact a violation of the law, and the commission of crimes against humanity.
http://emetaheret.org.il/2009/08/25/אפ-בי-איי-בן-לאדן-פיגועי-התאומים-911/
Even the FBI has no evidence against Bin Laden regarding 911
But my father is closed about it. - As I said, we buy stories.
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/laden.htm
Nadav, I had to take action so that I wouldn't have to monitor the site every second and be with my guests on the holiday. If you are secular and believe that religious coercion should not be fought in the name of pluralism, please come to Ramat Aviv on any Friday - take a tour near Alliance, at the mall entrances, in the Shuster center, and come to Shuster even at night and see how much money one of the hundreds of repenting movements invests in convincing our children, then change your opinion Meanwhile I live here and suffer from it.
Maybe they didn't reach you. If the choice is to allow me to educate my children as I believe and for them to educate their children as they want (pluralism) and to turn the other cheek to the contradiction, so that they take my children away and force me to thank them, then I prefer a third option - to make the 18 Seculars also have children in every family, but unfortunately this option does not exist in the State of Israel, I will have to settle for pluralism - and in order for the second option not to exist, pluralism must also be imposed, and that is what Michael is doing.
post Scriptum. Please read Raanan Shaked's article in the Seven Days of Yediot supplement from yesterday - The occupation is scary (page 48). I promise you that after visiting Ramat Aviv you will join Michael Vali in the fight for freedom.
These al Qaeda, seeing that they managed to drive the Russians out of Afghanistan and established themselves there, got pissed off, thought that they could also defeat the Americans and initiated the terrorist attack in 2001 with the aim of subduing the USA as well and dominating their version of Islam throughout the world as this religion commands. They didn't need help from the Americans. I find it hard to believe that there was a conspiracy here, because such a thing would have been leaked long before the event in a country like the USA. And again, with all due respect to finding another truth, the science site deals with the real truth and not with alternative truths.
I don't start wars, my father doesn't start wars, the people commenting here don't start wars.
So who is?
"Forever eaten by a sword"?
Yes, as long as we swallow the stories that feed us and cause us idle motivation to hate and fight.
Take for example the last war that was declared - the war on terror
What is its cause? The events of September 11, 2001.
which according to all the factual evidence and testimonies - Operation Flase Flag
which was carried out by American government officials and Western intelligence agencies.
to create a pretext for a new war.
http://www.emetaheret.org.il/2009/09/10/אסון-התאומים-פיגועי-טרו/
Come on, all the scientists will create a powerful magnetic field within the country's borders that won't let anything in...
For Yossi and my father. The reasons for the existence of wars are many. Yossi, the analysis you present only refers to economic aspects. However, other important aspects should be examined, especially national and religious fundamentalist ideologies. The reference to these aspects is important on several levels. First, phenomenologically, humans are different from animals because they maintain a society with an economic and ideological infrastructure. Emphasis on this difference makes it clear that the parallels to the living world are thin and insufficient. Although we are biological creatures, we have complex aspects that can change behaviors significantly. I believe that the serious reasons for wars are not only the overt or covert aggression that exists in humans but mainly the ideologies that transcend this aggression into a war situation. Defining the other as an ally or as an enemy is an ideological definition. The decision to sacrifice human beings for the sake of ideology, whether he is a victim (soldier) or whether he is a victim (enemy) is an ideological decision. And finally, in the name of ideology, people legitimize murder and call it killing. Every soldier sent into battle is nothing more than a serial killer who is legitimized and qualified in the name of nationalist or religious ideology to commit murder.
Uprooting these ideologies from the root is the key (not the only one) to the elimination of major wars from our world.
There is no doubt as to the existence of violent activity in everything related to life, as part of the need for existence and survival; When the intensity of violence is, among other things, a function of a paucity of resources, and it is true that against this background, human history is saturated with ceaseless conflicts, from the level of the individual to the general.
At the individual level, due to the ingrained nature, even when he is not in need, he will use violence in order to obtain something he does not need, and it also happens that he pays a heavy price for it.
At the same time: human culture, saturated with experience and suffering as a result of violence, has developed at the state level tools to deal with it, which alleviates but does not solve the problem.
Conclusion: With no other options, one must continue to develop improved capabilities to reduce violence.
It can exist in democratic countries; But we live on the tiny Earth (relative to other heavenly bodies devoid of life), and on the tiny Earth there are non-democratic countries, for example, in World War II, life on Earth survived with great difficulty, and the questions asked:
What might happen to human culture in the age of nuclear weapons?
Yossi, I wish there were no wars. But I have a feeling that if we don't fight, it's only a matter of time before we won't be here and won't be at all. Listen to Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad.
I am not ready to go as a sheep to the slaughter for a second holocaust when my mother who experienced the first one is still alive to tell how a nine-year-old girl had to tell her friend that they should run away to the forest and not join their parents in the place where they concentrated the Jews in the town before their execution, when she told them - if the Germans want to shoot me - Let them shoot me in the back when I'm free, just because it's not nice to fight for my existence.
Yaron:
Thanks!
Correcting a common linguistic error in the title:
The correct expression is "forever you will eat a sword". The verb cannot be inflected in any other way in this sentence. The "eat" refers to the sword, it is the one that eats. Nobody eats swords (except circus performers).
It is unfortunate that these are the conclusions that arise from the facts described.
"In order to promote peace, he (De Waal) suggests that countries adopt mutual economic dependence, with the help of alliances like the one that exists in the European Union."
The creation of economic alliances between countries will only be sufficient if the countries are able to distribute the resources among the citizens of the world in an equitable manner and do not concentrate the purchasing power in the hands of a handful of capitalists which will lead to the oppression of the working class and its division.
"Civilization, which is often blamed for causing wars, actually helps us achieve peace." The word civilization is a misleading word. Today, the bulk of the world's capital is in the hands of a few who exploit and oppress the majority of humanity in factories established in third world countries, where natural resources and manpower are exploited in a pig-like manner and the payment to workers is a starvation wage because there was an excess supply of labor force that, until then, existed independently from the plundered natural resources. Plunder of natural resources by "civilization" causes mass migration of poor people from the third world to the developed countries. This is how a huge supply of workers was created in the West as well, which creates friction between the immigrants and the locals due to the formation of poverty and crime and due to extreme cultural differences. Until today, the capitalists sat in the West and made sure that the citizens of the West had a high standard of living so that they would continue to support governments that serve the capitalists, and create laws that would preserve the ability of the capitalists to continue to plunder the world's natural resources. The migration of many poor people to the West will lead to a severe crisis in these countries in the coming era. Will this crisis lead to a global socialist struggle that will lead civilization to a proper distribution of the world's resources among all humans, thus eradicating the need for wars? Time will tell, but according to historical evidence, such a revolution will only occur if the public is aware of the tremendous capacity for change that it has as the working force behind which every form of economy invented to date is founded; Such a change has to come from below, it can never succeed if it only comes from within the ruling class.
For example, the recent war in Gaza would not have broken out if the refineries, the gas stations, the electric company, the public transportation, and the food companies were controlled by the workers who threatened that they would not provide the security forces and the military industries with the resources they needed.
I'm not a delusional and naive leftist. I know that Hamas was a problem, but the war only strengthened it in the eyes of the Palestinian voting public. There is a much more effective way to defeat evil maavak.org.il