As I mentioned in my previous article on the differentiated American gene pool, this old philosopher that I know has some interesting views of life.  I asked if I could plagiarize his thoughts here on VofA.  “Yes”, he said, “so long as you write them under my name.”

So here’s another one:

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There is a pressure that grows in the human in times of peace.  That pressure, be it psychic or something else, is a restlessness that builds with the mundane everyday monotony of our domestic lives.  It is easy to lose our focus and sense of purpose.

It builds as the last conflict recedes into the past and the memory of it dims.  Even those that took part in it tend to forget as their recollections are remolded by historians, politicians, story tellers and the rose colored glasses of memory. 

The young who were not a party to it see only the excitement and exhilarating glory of it through the story tellers’ eyes, not the long periods of extreme boredom punctuated by moments of terror, pain, suffering and yes, even doubt.

The young man, especially, may feel this restlessness, this lack of purpose.  That is why we seem to have a new crop of willing warriors every generation.  War is seen as a way to escape the soft shackles of everyday responsibility, to provide sharp well-defined purpose to life. 

War is seen as an activity where there are no grey areas; no issues that require tedious thinking and answers that all too often are a definite maybe, rather than an absolute yes or no.  Objectives are definite and well defined.  Results are decisive; If you kill someone, that’s definite!  And there’s no question about whether it is right or wrong.  It is for your homeland.

History suggests that this characteristic of the human being tends to be stronger in the male than in the female of the species.

History could be used to argue that this tendency is stronger in the American gene pool than in some other gene pools because of the differentiation postulated in The Curmudgeon on the American Gene Pool.

The point of all of this is that we will continue to have periodic wars as this tide of psychic pressure builds during peace time, and is then vented by conflict.  As long as we do not address this characteristic in ourselves, those few warmongers among our leaders will always have a ready reserve of willing innocent cannon fodder either immediately available or developing.

May you nourish your intellect as you chew on this idea.

The Curmudgeon

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