[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Since we basically don’t have anything to prey upon us any longer, we need something to stimulate us to continue evolving. Yes, microbes do their part to force us to grow stronger. But we need something to prey on us, to get us to evolve. Is this why war happens, as nature’s way of continuing our evolution?[/quote]
??? Getting killed helps you evolve??? Am I missing something here?
Have you ever been in a balls to the wall oh-shit-I’m-gonna-die fight? If so, explain how this helped you become a better person. Try to keep it to 25 words or less please. Rasslin as a sport (incl. UFC etc.) although violent is very far from real violence.
Humans fight because there will always be conflict and because violence is a great short-term (only) solution. If you think someday we will resolve all conflict you should contemplate exactly how much you’d like being at my beck and call for my every whim. Such social conflict can only be eliminated through drastic totalitarian action. Social friction will always exist and how a society manages it determines in large measure ultimately how dysfunctional it is. Violence is a very full time job and a violent society has little time for anything else. The US and the West are far from violent societies.
Your quote from Nietzsche is quite telling. Hate to court Godwin’s Law, but you are propounding what can only be called a fascist (particularly Nazi, with it’s pseudo-biological emphasis on eugenics) perspective. FWIW it was tried and just didn’t work out. Maybe you heard? :o) Even the SS finally abandoned that view.
We are animals who are also made to hunt & gather daily. Physical activity is a necessity for health, both physical and mental. War (especially of the modern, ICBM type) hardly fits the bill. You might make an argument fighting will physically improve you as long as you do it just like our ancestors – buck naked and bare handed. Airpower, automatic weapons, swords etc. are very, very recent innovations from an evolutionary perspective and are simply tools of slaughter.
Surviving an aerial bombardment is hardly the sort of personal growth experience I’d care to indulge in. Do you really think that qualifies as some sort of challenge that will strengthen you? Hand to hand combat is all but extinct in modern warfare. Any commander who has his charges intentionally end up in such a situation would be sacked in short order. The US is at the cutting edge that way and we tend to shoot your machines rather than your soldiers (If you think the US has recently not played nice, you have no f-ing clue what it can.)
If you want to improve yourself, workout/train and do things with your training (hike, run, climb a mountain, screw your old lady until she can’t walk). Get connected to your environment by using your other senses. Become aware – that is what a lot of your brain does that we shut off in the modern era.
Lemma 'splain one other thing. I am no pacifist by a long shot. I do, however, have more experience with violence and violent encounters than most of the armchair warriors who are starry-eyed over the supposed tonic effects of mayhem. It is a simple fact that sometimes violence in general and war in particular are the best choices for a situation but far, far less than most folks would like to believe.
“War is truly wonderful to those who have not experienced it”
– Erasmus of Rotterdam
– jj