But hasn't history changed? In most the world between most super powers, valuable resources today are in intelligence capital, not raw "things," right? We're mostly pretty far removed from rape and pillage. For the countries still dealing with that and other tribal, generational issues, Marshall Rosenberg's approach has been successful. You might be surprised what other options exists besides war.
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I agree. Try anything possible instead of war, but neglecting defence is irresponsible as new needs and resource shortages occur yearly. Unfortunately, in the pursuit of 'national interest,' there will always be conflict between countries.
Idealistically, I believe that as a species we need to find a way off this damn rock and colonise space. For that to happen, cooperation is needed, but 'idealism' ignores fact and human nature.
But we as a species are more prosperous than ever. Books like the Better Angels of Our Nature or this short YouTube clip visualizing 200 countries in 200 years convince me we are no longer in a situation of resource scarcity. We have enough to provide for everyone, if we had the will to do so. "Human nature" is something which changes all the time, and I think it's changing now more rapidly than ever, mainly because of technological advances and the Internet. Our technology is what makes us human (starting with cooking).
Right, I live in South-Africa and I am not seeing 'enough for everyone'. Theoretically, there is enough but PRACTICALLY it is not showing or even realistic. Feeding programs for poorer African countries are terrible as the food does not even come close to facilitating development in youths or even providing daily essentials like protein. Some say we do not need protein, our brains do especially during development.
Water is becoming a scarcity in many parts of the world and here in SA we are just recovering from one of the worst droughts in ages. For now, trade and cooperation works, but even supposed international aid comes with strings attached.
A country that cannot and will not defend itself WILL be plundered by more desperate nations. Desperation and need are some of the driving forces of human violence.
I agree tech and the internet help but even then, it only introduces new problems and instances of greed and selfishness.
I'm so sorry you have to deal with these hardships. I'm thankful for the luck of my birth to a prosperous nation and family, but I recognize I just as easily could have been born anywhere else. I try to remind myself that means I have some responsibility to take care of those who weren't so fortunate. Concerns over water could become a very serious problem, but I'm hopeful energy breakthroughs will make desalination much cheaper. As I continue to position myself in a good financial place, I hope to someday influence areas in the world who need it most.
That is the beauty of mankind. There is always hope and there are those who want to effect change. I also believe that adversity is what drives humanity to advancement. As energy and water become scarcer, people will find a way of adapting. Unfortunately, no advancement is made without sacrifice..
It is not your sentiment I disagree with, just the idealism because idealism ignores the harsh reality of who we are as a species.
Do you think it's possible we, as a species, are changing? That's part of my argument (see the "we're evolving" link in my original post), but I also agree it requires quite a bit of idealism to go along with. If it is happening, however, war could be a thing of the past which would explain Steven Pinker's evidence that the last 100 years has seen the lowest per-capita violent death than in all of human history (even including WWI and WWII!)
Some people are changing as they embrace tech. Sadly there will always be that portion that will resist change. as for why there is less war. Is it not perhaps the fear of a fiery atomic death?
I believe that we will eventually stop fighting over cultural differences, but other struggles will rise up. We are already seeing the resistance against things like VR, AI and Bio-augmentation...