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Why do we have massacres/wars? Here are some random thoughts:
People are selfish
People are clanish
People are territorial
People form allies but those ties can break down if allies are busy with their own problems
Most wars have genocidal aims
War often works in accomplishing objectives
People don’t step in, nobody cares to get involved. Not worth the risk.
People with minimal provocation can do things they won’t normally do, riot syndrome
Family and society pressures are very powerful in more primitive societies
People think nothing about killing animals for food. So what stops them from extending that logic to other people?
Lots of people have gene for fighting. These are usually people who lean right politically. Usually find such types in law enforcement, EMT, fireman , contractors, handymen, etc..
Weapons give immense power to marginalized individuals
Terror states work
Young people starting from children can be easily manipulated with propaganda
Women have some inexplicable attraction to violent men.. As they say, nice guys finish last
People would rather die than change lifestyle/religion/habits
All societies are equally balanced between the right and left leaning people. War happens when there is an imbalance to the right.
Provides a sense of purpose to an otherwise boring existence where we have little control over our surroundings
For all the nobility some might want to show the Native Americans as better than those immigrants that came after their immigration, they were rather brutal, too!
There will always be massacres', genocide, liars and slavery, because evil exists. The reality is none of it starts without a festering hate of people and I'm not talking about your neighbor who lets their dog shi* in your yard. Hating what people do, is different than hating people.
It's OK to hate murder, liars or slavery, but we must also KNOW what to love. Hate evil and love God, hate what people do and love people.
One would think genocide is a national sport in some places on the planet. I'd name a few places but that would start a real kerfuffle. In some places people have been at each others throats since the beginning of recorded history. So yeah, I'd have to agree it's an unfortunate part of human nature.
In the Bible, King Saul of Israel was commanded by God to destroy the Amalekites: “ From man unto woman, from infant unto suckling, from ox unto sheep, so that the name of Amalek not be mentioned even with reference to an animal by saying ‘This animal belonged to Amalek’. ” Saul, being Saul, didn’t do it sufficiently and was condemned for it. So, true or not, we have an example of God ordering the slaughter of an entire nation of people — thereby making it sort of okay by God. God was busy wiping out whole cities and towns at various times and who can forget the Great Flood?
Jews, Huguenots, and Infidels of every breed and creed were targeted all in the name of religion.
I sounds to me that genocide and wholesale massacres were common place far back into our prehistory. Once upon a time the Governor of Missouri issued an extermination order against the Mormons. The Indians were often victims of massacres but they did some themselves. Sometimes people are in the way and conveniently killed off in war as with the Aboriginal Tasmanians, much of the California Indian population, or at least once with small pox infected blankets as at Ft. Pitt. I fully expect that we have done this once we gained various group identities and competed for food or resources.
If you kill a person or a people to protect an innocent or innocent people, that is not murder or genocide. Some would argue what side of the equation you're on isn't proof enough, but evil is evil. Most people know or recognize evil.
Using a atomic bomb to end the US Japanese conflict called WWII saved millions of innocent lives... a horrid example, but one that happened and was justified.
Actions have consequences... and many reactions aren't very palatable or easy presented as for the greater good. It's real easy to take an after that fact position.
In the Bible, King Saul of Israel was commanded by God to destroy the Amalekites: “ From man unto woman, from infant unto suckling, from ox unto sheep, so that the name of Amalek not be mentioned even with reference to an animal by saying ‘This animal belonged to Amalek’. ” Saul, being Saul, didn’t do it sufficiently and was condemned for it. So, true or not, we have an example of God ordering the slaughter of an entire nation of people — thereby making it sort of okay by God. God was busy wiping out whole cities and towns at various times and who can forget the Great Flood?
The example of Amelek is unfortunately a good one. Amelek preyed on the weak and the stragglers in battle; like some other groups local to that region to this very day. People "fighting" the World Trade Center with planes loaded with innocent people is a good example. So are random knifings and car rammings. As far as Noah goes obviously that was a parable. G-d was unhappy with the way his keystone species turned out and wanted a fresh start. As they say, be careful what you wish for. You may get it and rue the results.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SunGrins
Jews, Huguenots, and Infidels of every breed and creed were targeted all in the name of religion.
The other persecutions besides the many against Jews have been more localized and specific to a time or place. The book Anti-Judaism by David Nirenberg highlights the history of this scourge since the days of Pharaoh. The author points out that many Jew-haters have never met a Jewish person. Link to my review of this book.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SunGrins
I sounds to me that genocide and wholesale massacres were common place far back into our prehistory. Once upon a time the Governor of Missouri issued an extermination order against the Mormons. The Indians were often victims of massacres but they did some themselves. Sometimes people are in the way and conveniently killed off in war as with the Aboriginal Tasmanians, much of the California Indian population, or at least once with small pox infected blankets as at Ft. Pitt. I fully expect that we have done this once we gained various group identities and competed for food or resources.
It's easier to look at history and point the finger than to examine the existence of violence, both overt and subtle, in the present.
Violence in human group nature goes deeper than survival and calculated extermination, particularly in modern times. It also is a bonding mechanism and presents a sense of identity, beliefs, belonging.
We see it evidenced today in sports, in politics. religion. The need to be on the prevailing side. It's pretty intense. I've seen "civilized war" take place in places of worship or institutions of education and literally tear them apart. So even the religious and educated aren't exempt from that human inclination
It's hinted at by the self-righteous in the sentence, "You don't want to be on the wrong side of history, do you?"
It's normal and when contained part of human nature until the tensions become too compelling for too many people. Then it is volatile. Cancel culture seems a good example of symbolic sacrifice to the fickle gods of political correctness.
Edited to add: But there is a bright spot, I think. While humans have not been able to eradicate violent tendencies (evolution is slow) we have been able to sublimate them in more civilized ways. Cancel culture only takes a person's reputation , income and place of belonging. In the past he would have been drawn and quartered in the town square.
There would have been a time nearly universally where just walking in someone's woods may have meant death.
And of course the desperate struggle for food and shelter that even peace-loving people with children to protect would fight to the death for.
It is posited that we currently live in the safest of all times for human beings. (That statement leaves me a little open-mouthed.)
Last edited by Lodestar; 05-21-2021 at 08:01 AM..
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