[extropy-chat] War Is Easy To Explain - Peace is Not

Lee Corbin lcorbin at rawbw.com
Tue Mar 13 02:43:38 UTC 2007


Keith writes
 
> And *why* is there utility?  I.e., why do people fight wars at all?

Isn't it EXTREMELY OBVIOUS why human groups fight wars
and have conflicts???

It was obvious even before E.P.  

If you want to explain something, explain why

1.  people join anti-war marches designed to *weaken*
     their own side's prospects while an actual war is 
     going on!

2.  why people cannot control their own envy towards
     those better off than they are, even though they've
     grown up seeing envy in all its ugly manifestations
     all their lives!

3.  why humans are the peaceful primate, i.e., why per
     thousand hours of ethnological observation, humans
     are vastly, vastly more peaceful than any other primate.

4.  why there has been a uniform decrease of warfare per
     living human being during the course of history

Those really demand explanation.

And that's just four mysteries I have for you.  There are
plenty more mysteries.  But why war or inter-group conflict
exists, or why people compete, certainly are not among them.

Lee




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