Eternal War

[NOTE: These posts are an ongoing presentation, meant to be read beginning with the earliest and ending with the most recent. If not read in that order, there is a potential loss for the reader in an overall understanding of what is being presented. You have been warned.]

My friends, I am sorry to have to tell you this, but we are at war. Now for a lot of people that’s really no big deal. Just so long as it doesn’t affect their lifestyle too dramatically they can cope with it. Isn’t that amazing? “How come they don’t care?” “They need to support our troops.” Well, maybe they don’t truly feel that it is their war. “But there are terrorists out to get us.” Of course, by definition, the goal of a terrorist is to inspire terror. So if they don’t feel terrorized, then who wins. But, that’s not what I mean when I say that we are at war.

I’m not talking about war in Iraq, or war in Afghanistan, or any of the other half dozen wars that are currently taking place on the planet or the over 2 dozen conflicts currently battling their way across the headlines around the world. I’m not talking about ethnic wars or cultural wars or religious wars or ideological wars or civil wars or racial wars. I’m not talking about cold wars or hot wars. I’m not talking about the little day to day wars that take place between individuals or small groups who are against one another or against some “thing” that is encroaching upon their lives.

What I want to talk about here today is the one war that has been going on since the dawn of mankind, the war that is ultimately at the root of all of the other wars. This is the war that never gets any press coverage, any analysis, any mention. Yet it is the war that has dominated the history of mankind, from simple one-on-one engagements to worldwide conflicts. At the risk of being accused of being simplistic, the bare reality nevertheless is that there are two basic sides in this conflict. On the one side are those people who desire to live a life that brings personal satisfaction and a sense of their own liberation, to strive to be whomever and whatever they can be, while honoring that same freedom in others around them. On the other side of this eternal conflict are those who have a lust to dominate others, through force, through trickery, through deceit, through lying, through misinformation, through pain, through pontification, through mental, physical, and emotional torture, or through trial by combat.

Now we need to understand here that every single one of us has elements of those two sides within us. The drive to dominate and the desire to be free. And those two aspects of our nature have developed a diverse variety of ways of expressing themselves. For those who are more involved in expressing the liberation side of their nature, they may be the person who follows the rules, does their job, provides for the family, and helps their fellow beings in ways that might otherwise go unnoticed. Then again, they may feel a commitment to more openly help other people and the planet in a variety of ways, through a vocation, or volunteer work, or organizing, or otherwise sharing, advertising, and working toward their vision for creating a better world. On the other hand, those who aspire to achieve a sense of domination, power, and accomplishment that sets them apart and above other people, may sometimes seem aloof from close relationships and personal responsibilities. Their drive to succeed is often not intimately shared by those around them, which is natural, for if it were so, there would probably be close personal conflict as they try to dominate one another. But this detachment often causes others to judge them harshly

In the early centuries of humankind, the rules were pretty straightforward. The strong survive and if one was not strong, then it was best to seek the strength of others for protection. Because the strong were not alone in their strength, they competed with others to be the strongest. The spoils from such competition would often escalate with each new combat. A major problem with this “system” was that it was hierarchically a pyramid. Yep, the first pyramid and long before the ones on the planes of Giza. By design, there was only room for one “winner” at the top. And throughout history there have been those who strove to be that one winner.

Since not everyone can be “the” winner, those who are driven to dominate identify various levels of dominant achievement wherein they can succeed with a certain amount of security without facing annihilation. This, of course, meant devising ways and methods of dealing with other dominant winners by designing processes that protected their own dominion without appearing less than dominant, or weak. Ah, the birth of politics, the science of understanding how to deal with other people.

Because we all have aspects of both of these drives/desires for domination and liberation within us, and because we are all so unique and varied in our manifestations as human beings, the varieties of expressions of these aspects has been multitudinous. Nevertheless, the system that self developed around these expressions of humanity adhere to the pyramidical structure, which obviously had the dominators clambering for the top while the overwhelming majority of the liberators settled for trying to find enough room for a little comfort at the bottom levels of evolving society.

Thank God most people are not dominators, or at least that they demonstrate very little of those traits in their everyday affairs. Otherwise, we might be living in a world like that of Mad Max, one in which everyone is competing with everyone else and the beauty of life is completely submerged beneath the continual cries of combat.

Now I’m about to piss some people off, but before you get too ticked at me, if what I’m about to say really bothers you personally, then you’d better think about getting a thicker skin because the people you are going to have to compete against make me look like the babbling corner schizophrenic who hardly warrants a second thought. A major problem with those who are driven to dominate is that they don’t seem to know where or when to slow down. Need I point out how obvious that is with today’s current world financial situation. Along the way, in the scramble for the top, so much can be lost because the heat of combat requires full and undivided attention. I mean, absolute. Ask anyone who competes professionally, in order to win, you must “give it your all.”

Now let’s look at those who live lives that are more directed by a desire for liberation without domination. It is my observation that they are the majority of the people. I mean, for God’s sake, look around you. For all of the crime and corruption and evil which seem to be so rampant in all the world, by and large, most people are doing the best that they can to live and let live, to earn a living, to have a family, to raise children, to show up for work, to endeavor to do good at whatever they do. Next time you are out, look at the people around you, the people who work in the businesses that serve you, the people driving to and from various commitments that they have made regarding family, friends, work, and assorted enjoyments of life.

And it’s not just in this country of America. Did you know that the population of metropolitan Tokyo is over 19 million people? That’s five times as many people as live in greater Atlanta, Georgia. New York City has 26,000 people per square mile. It’s amazing that more people are not killed every day in places with that kind of population density. People seem to have a tremendous capacity for tolerance. Friends, for all of the horrendous murder and pillage that has taken place over the existence of mankind, it is nevertheless a hard cold fact that most people are good. Oh, they may get stressed from time to time, but, by and large, most people are good. My experience is consistently that most people are decent human beings that are no threat to others. Now push someone into a corner and that may well be another story. But most people don’t regularly get pushed into corners. So, most people are generally decent human beings.

So we have this war that has been going on for thousands of years. It is a war between those who desire to dominate their fellow human beings through various means, and those who wish to live lives liberated from the domination of others. And I believe that all other conflict is nothing more than an aspect of this one major war.

The reason that this war has continued for thousands of years is because they liberators are not sufficiently motivated to bring the war to a close if it means dominating the dominators, and the dominators will continue dominating others for as long as they can get away with it, for as long as nobody stops them. It’s the old game of becoming that which you despise in order to overcome it. And so the beat goes on.

With that in mind, let’s move on and begin to delve into areas that are more currently of the utmost importance to our continued survival on this planet and are, of course, hot topics for this year’s American Presidential election.