[Homestead] It's almost over
sjc
indexer at fairpoint.net
Wed Dec 3 09:35:42 EST 2008
>> We are a warring species, plain and simple. We ask, and if we do
>>
??? I think it's hard to say it a species given......how about the
Inuit? the Zapotec? the Tahitians? the Ladahki? These are old
societies, and have for many years chosen peace over war, beginning in
their personal lives within their own spheres, and in some cases
carrying a lack of willingness to be aggressive to the point of
declining to defend themselves. Whole societies/cultures have been
decimated because of a refusal to be violent. So while it may be that
if the planet lasts long enough that all these people are wiped out, and
we actually lose whatever it is that causes some of us, individually and
culturally, to seek a peaceful outcome to conflicts, it doesn't seem to
me to be a 'given' that we are a warring species.
Many of the old matriarchial societies practiced peaceful existence and
searched for peaceful solutions. There are also the johnny-come-lately
cultures that seem to find it easy to choose peace: the Anabaptists,
who make an attempt to remain peaceful by holding themselves somewhat
separate from aggressors, and when that fails, they choose flight over
fight. These people make an apparent choice to be peaceful; if
warring/aggression were inherent in the species, seems like it would be
hard to maintain these stances over time.
And at the other end of the spectrum we have the cultures, such as the
Vikings and some segments of Mongols which have been violent, warriors
always (at least so far as we can tell from here), and went about their
regions, or in some cases, the world, proclaiming their superiority and
going about proving it so.....proud to be people who were considered
anywhere from from obnoxious to brutal by the subjects of their aggression.
Between the two more-or-less extremes lie many societies/cultures who
have been perfectly happy to live and let live, but resisted being
pushed around. And there exist whole other groups where physical
violence/aggression is used as a tool, for instance, the old practice of
killing or maiming a majority of male infants to reduce the numbers of
persons available to conduct a war....common at one time some places,
particularly in Indonesia. So there is acceptance of violence in an
attempt to prevent violence, odd as that seems.
So maybe it's not that we humans are a warring species, but rather that
we're able to learn a 'skill', or coping methodology, that seems to
serve us well, whether peaceful or aggressive.
SusanJane, pacifist mother of a career-military son, sister of 2 living
brothers who have had 20+ years each in the military, and who has lost
brothers, half brothers, and nephews in war.
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