Why are there wars?
I can’t be the first person to ever ask this, but I do not recall ever seeing a decent explanation. Do you think there is something in our genes that causes us to fight?
Do you think that wars are fought for economic reasons? Certainly some must be, but I think there are others where economics is not much of a factor. What economic gain, for example, would there be in Afghanistan? Even if economics is a factor, we seem real good at convincing ourselves that it is not. How many soldiers in Iraq do you think were motivated by allowing greater profits for oil companies or lowering the price of gasoline?
Do you think there will ever come a time when there will be few if no wars? Some have claimed that there have never been wars between democratic nations. I suppose this depends in part on the definition of democratic. One could make the case that the War of 1812 was between democratic nations.
I seem to have gotten carried away with questions. Just choose whichever ones you feel like answering.
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Someone has to sell newspapers.
limited natural resources
@Grisaille No they don’t! ~ I’ll fight you to prove it.
To prove that we’re not a bunch of pussies. America must lose to no one!!! I’m not serious but this is a very real mindset to some
Rights to territory, which means to the resources on the territory. Water. Arable land. Timber. Mines. Passage to the river or the sea. People’s arch-enemies tend to be the people right next to them. You are much more likely to see a dispute between neighboring nations, tribes, or peoples than between groups that are half a world away. Or at least that used to be true.
Wars start for the same reason as bullies in elementary school. “You have candy! I Want that candy.” or “I’m special, I get to play!” or most often ” I need to be popular. I’m going to hit you with this bat to prove it.” War is the same thing as some kid putting ice down your back in 3rd grade, but now this involves troops and fighter jets.
It is part of the fundamental process of our existence.
Every process has conflict. Your body is at war all the time fighting off germs and infection.
The evolution of the universe is violent.
Super novas, black holes and our sun is no picnic, spraying us with Ultraviolet Radiation.
What makes us think, just because we think, that we are any different than any other process?
It is part of a constant that is apparent in everything.
Call it war if you like. It is a necessary evil. Does not fall under good or bad. It just is what it is.
“What we’ve got here is… failure to communicate.”
—Strother Martin
I was thinking about this very same thing today while outside my apartment hundreds of people were fighting in the streets while the heavy police presence just stood by and watched and others begged them to do something, it was a mini war right on my doorstep and those able to stop it did nothing but kept the fight contained to certain areas without attempting to stop the fight. In this case the fight was between the EDL and the UAF
The human race has an incredible desire to control which is a good thing as without it we wouldn’t have all the things we do, economies, sanitation, health care, communication technology, transport infrastructure etc etc
With control there will always be casualties and some of those casualties are welcomed and encouraged. Wars cost money if you can lend money to people at war you can lend a lot of money, and make a lot of money. More money than you will ever need but money is only the tool to give you the power to have people at your will and have the control.
We all like to feel that we are in control of our own lives, when we feel this control is threatened we fight. Wars are good for keeping power if you fund them and don’t engage in them, keep the rest of the world fighting and literally suck the life out of them.
To make it short. Patriotism. Though wars are started for a whole lot of reasons.
It’s part of our most primitive nature. Humans, like all animals, will fight to protect what they see as theirs: mates, food, territory. As we became more advanced and developed social skills we learned that we could band together in tribes to protect each other’s mates, food, and territory. We learned to make the connection with our tribe a powerful one, since it told us who would protect us and who we should protect. Our tribes grew larger, and we learned to treat money as equivalent to what it could be traded for (mates, food, land). Even now, deep inside us our ability to identify and bond with a tribe is strong (look at the fluther community: it has it’s own symbols and shibboleths that identify tribe members and differentiate them from “trolls” and “newbies”).
@gussnarp we were all newbies at one time, I would like to think Fluther is above the derision of newbies
Historically, religion has been the main cause of many, many wars.
@RareDenver I tend to think Fluther is a good deal more reasonable than some online communities, but there are still those on Fluther who will use someone’s newbie status as an insult when they disagree with them and have lost the logical argument. And it is definitely a tribe.
@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities True, but religion is just a shibboleth to indicate tribal identity.
@gussnarp Yes. We still are tribal animals, and belong to tribes and sub tribes. Generally we call them nations, but it is still a tribe form.
@RareDenver Nice =) I dare you to get a Fluther tattoo.
@oratio my brother is a tattooist so wouldn’t be that hard I guess, apart from the fact he lives in a different country to me
@RareDenver – you are a tribalist with a spot on your lens right in the middle of your jelly! Either that or I have a spot on my monitor!
Religion and economics are usually the underlying cause of most wars.
Conflicts are mostly more complex than that it’s fought over one given issue, but of course there are definite triggers in every conflict, but mostly because key people wants to go to war. No people really wants war, anywhere.
Some fight it over land for historical reasons. Israel.
Some for ethnic reasons. Ireland, Yugoslavia.
Or that they just want it for strategic reasons. Kashmir, Falkland Islands.
Some over ideology and political control. Colombia.
Some just because they want to be free. Chechnya.
Some just over economic interests.
They all fight for something that they want but don’t have, have but is threatened, have and want more.
Interstate wars are pretty scarce though. Most are domestic conflicts and harder to deal with.
Many of them start because of just grievances, but for people to consider a faraway nation that doesn’t make much of a direct threat an enemy, it takes patriotism. Blind commitment, following nationalist agenda. It’s easy to make young people believe in bullshit.
I can envision a time when there will be fewer wars. I say this with much caution, since predicting the future is a fool’s game. I do believe that human nature can change. We are most adaptable socially and there is some evidence that we have been evolving genetically. Even without introducing new genetic mutations, there is a large enough gene pool to allow for physical change.
War is not what it used to be. Individuals fought for glory when fighting was done with sword and shield and you could stare down your enemy at close range. Fighting with drones and IEDs is something else entirely.
Communication and transportation have made the world smaller. The old tribalism is breaking down. Imagine fighting a war against the country of somebody else on Fluther. Doesn’t it seem a little weird?
It is seen that free trade is a way to better prosperity for all. Nations like China and India which we have previously exploited are becoming equal players.
Attitudes have been changing. The idea of universal human rights is something new. A body like the U.N. would have been unthinkable 400 years ago.
There has not been a war fought directly by industrialized nations since WW II. That is a long time.
I have two conflicting views of the future. One is a Mad Max dystopia and the other, if not a utopia, then at least better than anything that has come before.
people fight because they’re just a bunch of living beens which have the most powerful brain in the world but they can’t(don’t want) use it’s hole power so they act like some idiot animals.
Simple as 1,2,3
We seem to have a need to define ourselves as “us” and “other” which I think is the fundamental reason we fight. Of course, there are many other factors but they basically are used to bolster this dichotomy.
Wars are always about resources, usually territory. In modern times, we end up with wars because diplomacy fails. I think in former times, some nations believed they were more powerful than others, so diplomacy was a sham. “Give me your territory”. “No.” “Ok, we’re going to take it. Try and stop us.”
War is a way of resolving disputes, or, one could say, solving problems. Usually people do not want to put resources into war if they can achieve their goals in some other way. That’s usually called diplomacy. When diplomacy fails, war begins.
@rooeytoo it was actually a smudge on the mirror
@RareDenver – hehehe, I practically put a hole in my monitor trying to clean it off, then rubbed my eyes, thinking if it wasn’t the monitor, I must have something in my eye!
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