War: What IS it good for?

renomakicwc

renomakicwc

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Feb 12, 2013
Ah, War... Since the early days of humanity, you were a big part of our history. War was fought for many reasons, Back then, it was for food. As time would pass, it would become a war for land, for trade, in the name of God, etc etc.

But, how did we invent the idea of warring to begin with? Why did humans suddenly start beating the shit out of each other? What started early wars in primitive man's history, and most of all, will the idea of warring come to an end one day? We spent thousands of years ripping someone a new one for whatever reason (or in some cases, no reason at all), and you would think after developing so well recently that we would grow above blowing each others brains out by now, yet we still go running around blowing each others brains out. Why? Wouldn't it be better if we all just got along? What is keeping us from, you know, not popping a cap in someone's butt?
 
Re: War: What IS is good for?

Well, war stopped Nazi Germany and fascist Japan from taking over the world.

America also gained its independence and kept it through war.

I could list more, but you get the idea. Yes, it would be far better if there were no violent people trying to force their will on us, but that will never happen, will it?

A quote from John Stuart Mill comes to mind:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

tl;dr - some things are worth fighting for
 
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Re: War: What IS is good for?

Well, you need to rid yourself of the misconception that warfare was an idea two separate factions had one day or something. Think, what's a need that's ubiquitous to all of humanity?

Resources. Food, water, shelter, and money...yep. The earliest known wars fought, dating back to Sumerian times, were over resources and land. Nomads wanted control over the Fertile Crescent, they fought the people already settled there for it. The struggles have since become more complex (ideological, for example) but it boils down to power.

Of course that's not implying that's the birth of warfare. The nature of survival means that organisms often have to compete.
 
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Re: War: What IS is good for?

renomakicwc said:
CompyRex said:
Absolutely nothing.
Click to expand...

Of course, someone HAD to do it.
Click to expand...
I was going to just to point out that you wrote "is" two times and I can't edit anything in this sub-forum, but yeah, Compy beat me to it.
 
Re: War: What IS is good for?

[youtube]YnbKOboT5wQ[/youtube]


War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles, fought by mercenaries and machines. War, and its consumption of life, has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID tagged soldiers carry ID tagged weapons, use ID tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control. Information control. Emotion control. Battlefield control. Everything is monitored, and kept under control. War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control. All in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction. And he who controls the battlefield, controls history. War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control, war... becomes routine.
 
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Re: War: What IS is good for?

And please, let's keep the video responses to a minimum unless you have something poignant to add to them.
 
Re: War: What IS is good for?

My video is relevant. War is a business. It's quickly becoming the only business.
 
Re: War: What IS is good for?

Crazy Pacer said:
My video is relevant. War is a business. It's quickly becoming the only business.
Click to expand...
Mine is too. I'm shooting down Pacer's point.
 
Re: War: What IS is good for?

War always has a use. As Surtur pointed out earlier, animals fight all the time. If there is something you or a nation wants that they can achieve through fighting, they will take that option if they can get away with it.

I never foresee all disputes being handled peacefully. there will always be a point where people won't concede over something and end up fighting.
 
War is good for destroying things, I guess.

I don't really like destroying things, though (at least not in real life).
 
War is essentially what occurs when people in power can't get along with others. At least, that's what it usually is.
 
renomakicwc said:
Ah, War... Since the early days of humanity, you were a big part of our history. War was fought for many reasons, Back then, it was for food. As time would pass, it would become a war for land, for trade, in the name of God, etc etc.

But, how did we invent the idea of warring to begin with? Why did humans suddenly start beating the shit out of each other? What started early wars in primitive man's history, and most of all, will the idea of warring come to an end one day? We spent thousands of years ripping someone a new one for whatever reason (or in some cases, no reason at all), and you would think after developing so well recently that we would grow above blowing each others brains out by now, yet we still go running around blowing each others brains out. Why? Wouldn't it be better if we all just got along? What is keeping us from, you know, not popping a cap in someone's butt?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure anyone ever invented war, although we may have reached a point in our condition where war has become a marginal event in the bushes in third world countries. If anything, I suspect war emerged roughly along the same time period as anthropological "states" did, reflecting a distinction between peace and war by formalized agreement, perhaps ~5,000 BC...

Warring has largely come to an end via the creation of technology capable of reducing a developed nation into a fourth-world preindustrial state by blast, heat, radiation, and food supply breakdown. I'm unsure that the creators of the atomic bomb envisioned an atomic truce, but we've avoided a existential threat from war for the last seventy five years. A war with such weapons is clearly unwinnable, and because it can not be won, it will not be fought.

The base desires are still there and nasty stuff still happens, but so long as the consequences are too high relative to the potential gains war won't happen. There will probably not be a third world war in our lifetimes.
 
in almost all cases, you are sitting where you are sitting now because at some point, someone killed someone else for control of the land you're on.
 
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