Hacker News Reader

Comment by zemvpferreira | Hacker News Reader

Where there are simians, there is war. The more primitive the society, the bloodier and more total the war is. I wish our problem were psychopaths in power, but the truth is we are a tribal and fearful species and war is in our genes. It's as certain as a sunrise as long as there are humans.

View on HN

This is the goto excuse, or mantra if you will, deeply programmed into people by those who need cannon fodder to protect heaps of loot robbed from said fodder.

"We". "War is in our genes".

Start with "me". Do I need war? Do I want war?

Do I have something that differentiates me from a simian?

To bear a reasoning mind, and have a heart that is capable of love, and still to appeal to the animal foundation is a total betrayal of everything that makes you not just yet another animal.

I don't want or need war, but I won't deny to having felt tribal impulses before. I won't deny culture and groups are different from individuals. Idealism is fine until it starts interfering with reality.

> Idealism is fine until it starts interfering with reality.

Idealism has been carving into reality nonetheless.

Our current standards of living are straight out of platonic Eidos, compared to those of our cave-dwelling predecessors.

Computers are also a perfect example of materialized ideals. Airplanes, Internet, space exploration, you name it.

Why should that stop at war for any reason other than someone having a deep vested interest in it?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com