General Education and Assignments

Michael Bjorklund

Writing 2010 Review

The topic of my large essay was how I saw the future. In this paper i was able to explain how man has basic instincts and a natural tendency to be aggressive. That war is an invention of man, and that we are able to change our destiny. Having to pick a topic and then choose your position is great practice for the real world. There will be times when you have to defend your company or defend a position and it helps to be able to learn how to research both positions and state facts to prove your side.

Michael Bjorklund

Large Essay

3^rd portfolio

Page 718, Predictions: what will the future be like?

Question 2

                War, it has been present since man itself. Millions of human lives have been eliminated and destroyed from off the face of this planet. Billions more have been affected and influenced by these dramatic events. It is hard to prophecy the events that will take place in the future. I don’t know if wars will continue to pledge and terrorize man. I do feel that in my life I will continue to witness as war ravages this beautiful planet. Many authors have argued that war is biologically part of the human nature such as David Livingstone Smith’s The Most Dangerous Animal or Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson’s Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence. One of the counter arguments I read was that of Margaret Mead’s Warfare is only an Invention­—Not a Biological Necessity, where she stats that warfare is only an invention, it can be replaced by another invention. Yes, Warfare in and of itself is invented by man for purposes unique to each group and can be changed; however, it is human nature to be aggressive and protect ones family group from danger or destruction giving themselves the best chance for survival.

                What elements of human nature have united to change our species into one of the only species in the world that purposely kills off mass numbers of our own kind? Also what is Warfare and how has it been invented, built upon, and modified for each period of time? Is it possible to truly change our warlike disposition or are we doomed to repeat ourselves again and again?

                There are a few human traits that we all have and help us find happiness and comfort. If combined with a few wrong traits or provoked in certain way, these traits can end up being the cause of much death and suffering. One trait we look for the comfort of those who act look and believe as we do. We want to be surrounded by those who are like us. This however can be a problem if two conflicting groups come together. A few examples are Communism and Democracy, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. All of which are different groups of people, most of which are peaceful among themselves but next to each other tend to be hostile and aggressive.

                “Society has three major biases. First is that we are bias to those who are similar to us, second is that we care less about people we don’t directly come into contact with… Third is our bias towards those we are related to. If you have to choose between rescuing your two children or two strangers from a burning building, you’ll leave the strangers to burn... rescuing the two children.”[1] These biases towards others and for ourselves allow us to be able to lie to ourselves and justify actions against those who are different. If we can succeed in lying to ourselves, we can be capable of creating both psychological and physical distances from those not like us.[2] If as a society we can turn those who are different from us into objects and animals making them not human and/or evil, it makes it much easier to kill them. Examples, you wouldn’t kill one hundred men who all have wives and children at home and are just looking to live another day in peace. You might however kill one hundred men who are Nazis in charge of a holocaust camp or one hundred terrorists that have just attacked a city or village?

                Humans have the ability to reason, justify, take revenge, or give mercy. We are thinking, feeling, and pondering creatures. It is not a fact that we will automatically kill someone because they are different. The examples above are just a few of many different factors that have led to the invention of war and its justification. There are those who want power and those who will oppose them, both will be able to justify war, making it almost impossible to uninvent war.

                War is started by so many different factors. That is why there are so many different opinions as to if we are inherently warlike. What might help us to understand why this happens is to focus less on how man is warlike and more on man’s aggressive nature. In Demonic males we can see an idea that “another big gun, firing at distant trenches, booming the message that human violence today is simple fallout from a male temperament shaped by evolution to compete for the domination of females.”[3] Maybe our aggressiveness comes as a result to show how strong and powerful we are to the opposite sex. This is not proof that war is inherent, like lions, tiger, bears, birds, goats and other animals, we as humans still compete aggressively for the opposite sex and don’t wage war over them.

                Richard Wrangham states, “Like it or not, war is distinctively human.”^2[4] If war was distinctively human and a natural part of our genetic makeup then the most primitive men should be the most warlike and the more civilized nations should be the least warlike.⁴ This however is the opposite of what we find. Many small primitive tribes can be aggressive, but not warlike, most are peaceful. It’s only the civilized and industrialized nations that truly engage in war and look for ways to maintain their might.

                Many humans have a natural aggressive side to them, but not all. War for that matter is the same. Most people would get rid of war and would rather not participate in it. In the beginning there were probably little fights over hunting grounds or plots of land to farm. Over time when populations grew, when greed and lust came into the picture, people wanted other’s land. When the natural resources of the land became more and more crucial for survival of one’s tribe, nation, society, social group, war would have been invented to gain the supplies they needed. The fact that most people would start building defensive structures to protect them, better weapons to kill others quicker, tools to breach towers, and arms to conquer cities only prove that war is an invention. War was made by man, for the gain of one’s self.

 As John Paul Scott, professor emeritus at Bowling Green State University, has written: “All of our present data indicate that fighting behavior among higher mammals, including man, originates in external stimulations and that there is no evidence of spontaneous internal stimulation.”[5] This states that there has to be something else that causes war rather than people being born with the desire to kill. An example I remember is waking up on the morning of September 11, 2001. I walked into the kitchen and witnessed my mother with tears streaming down her face. Her focus was riveted on the TV, as I got close I saw a tall building with a plume of smoke billowing from its side. This was my first experience to terrorism. I was just a fifth grader; I had never actual witnessed warlike destruction in my country. For many people in the United States, this hit too close to home and they demanded war for revenge of so many innocent dead. Was this a justified reason for war? Only time will tell. This does show however that an act by one party can cause people that are normally socially polite, behaved, and good neighbors to change into a different kind of animal, wanting justice and revenge to be dealt on those responsible for the attack.

Margaret Mead stated in her essay that war is like marriage. It is an invention and has been turned into a custom accepted by most of the world; only to be changed or replaced if society invents a different custom that can persuade man that war isn’t necessary. She even goes as far as to say “In many parts of the world, war is a game in which the individual can win counters—counters which bring him prestige in the eyes of his own sex or of the opposite sex.”[6]

                In the past years our world has become more and more polarized. We see this in politics, we find it between cultures, and we encounter this in the basic beliefs of everyday people. The world is more and more uneasy economically still recovering from a major recession. There is more and more unrest in the Middle East, Israel is threatening to wage war if it continues to be bombed and if Iran doesn’t stop its nuclear race. Everywhere in the globe there are seeds of aggression and war. War is one of man’s most constant inventions that have been with us from the beginning.

                Believing that there future will continue to experience war, there is much hope for our time. Never before have we been so in tune with the world. Not once before in the history of man could you hold a conversation with someone on the other side of the world in seconds and see them on a computer or TV screen. We have never had nations that have been so racially culturally and economically mixed. This is a world where more and more nations are democratic and have left behind the bonds of monarchies and dictatorships.

Like Mead I don’t know how or what will replace war. I do think that there is hope that through greater communication will bring a more unified world. This will increase more tolerance throughout more nations and we will see a world that is united in a search for better understanding, focusing less on ancient resentments, forgiving, and moving forward as a united human race.