July 31, 2016
A man I admire and appreciate, Michael Mish, musician, actor, writer, producer, seeker, was saying in a FB post today that war is incomprehensible. The sad fact is that it is, to me, comprehensible. Explicable? Hardly, except for all the profits that can be made from waging it. It may sound harsh to use the term "thinning the herd" and I apologize to anyone who may be offended. The fact is that in spite of our hoping to be civilized human beings, the instinct to fight .. that limbic response to perceived threat or danger is in every critter on the face of the planet. Only the strong survive.
I tease a military oriented pal of mine about 'wiring.' We are all wired to live. Our breathing is automatic, as is our need to stay alive. There are predators and prey. We note that prey often have their eyes to the sides of their heads, making it easier to perceive danger. Predators have eyes to the front to stay on target when in pursuit of.. prey!
Our world remains in conflict because the Powers that Be want to stay in power and like the game of Monopoly or even chess, overcoming our opponents is the goal of the game. Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek approached this time and again. Why do we fight? Because we feel challenged or in danger.. or we are simply still too primal in our evolution to not want to "Win!"
Nature has a way of working. Humans often think of ourselves as 'above' nature, when, in fact we are just another step in what's happening on our planet, perhaps in All Creation? I often wonder if dolphins and whales may not have been on dry land and evolved to the point where they saw the dangers of territorial acquistion (Monopoly!) and headed back into the sea where there is much more room and abundant life and sustenance. Their 'societies' are a bit more simple than good old homo sapiens. Or are they? With more than 70 percent of the surface of planet Earth covered with oceans, the remaining 30 percent continues to load up with our expanding population. Imagine having all that room and what some folks believe: that cetaceans may have intelligence comparable or superior to human beings.
So? Why war? We reduce the herd. It's sad, but the 'fittest' do survive and with war profiteers oozing their way to the top of the heap, making more and more weapons of war for profit, the profit incentive, along with the need to 'win!' it seems to me that the 'us vs. them' mind set may be around for a long time. We need to demonize the 'enemy' and as we see in the current religious terror acts by design or just by crazy people, the human race will be a fighting race because competition .. resistance.. which is necessary for every single thing to happen in the relative world.. will prevail. Conflict is the food of life. Resolving our conflicts can be wonderful on a personal level. It feels good to have a resolution: a pay off.. an understanding of one another. But the competition aspect is something that most of us are wired to participate in and with the possible exception of His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama, who continues to issue his basic tenet .. Compassion.. we find "reasons" to fight.
Of course, as we evolve and see the futility of war, we may choose to not fight. That's a choice that I made a long time ago when it came to killing. I do think that expressing anger and getting over it is a wonderful goal, too. Carrying anger and a grudge is exhausting! But, if other folks don't get it and have no interest in healing a wound, then we fail in communication and moving beyond our emotions that by nature must erupt from time to time may be impossible. I'm still in trouble with my friend and really hope for a resolution. One cannot resolve issues by one's self.
I choose to not participate in war. MLK and Gandhi are role models for me and I hope I can stick to that ideal. Turning the other cheek isn't always easy. In my perfect world, the need to fight would be given over to drones and robots. Currently, there's a summer show on ABC called Battlebots! Ingenious war machines go into an arena fraught with peril and beat the crap out of one another. Teams of nerdy inventors may have solved the issue of war, if only we could all agree that the death of a Bot is better than the deaths of millions whom we send into the omnivorous maw of Global and Local conflict.
Next we need to work out overpopulation and bullets. Slowing down baby production and making bullets tough to acquire are burgeoning ideas. That, and making "WAR" with Bots! Competition may always be a driving force in our lives. War? Sadly, yes... until some idiot gets his hand on THE BUTTON! Then What???
July 31, 2016 (so long July)
michael sheehan
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