Violence & Sustainability

All this time the two goals of my life have been to eliminate human violence and achieve global sustainability. But in the last month or so I've been thinking that maybe the two goals contradict.

Every day I read the news reports on Iraq and I get sick to my stomach. The folks over there simply LOVE murdering Americans, coalition forces, civilian contractors, each other, and any living thing they can get their hands on. They simply love to kill -- it's probably fun for them.

As I sit back and think, I'm beginning to realize that this is simply evolution at work. Violence is perfectly natural in nature, and to prevent humans from murdering and slaughtering one another is to prevent the natural flow of evolution.

What this violence accomplishes, I'm not sure. It will eventually prune out the aggressive genes in humanity. It will weed out the weak and those who are slower to draw a gun.

Maybe we just need to accept violence as part of life and let our murdering and killing pursue its natural course. Maybe this pruning of the flock will help to create a better, stronger human race.

But I keep thinking about what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said when he gave his Nobel Peace Prize speech. He said something about evolving BEYOND the violence. It always struck me strange that a preacher would use the word "evolve." But I think Dr. King was far more than a preacher -- he was a great global visionary.

So, no. As much as the Iraqis, Iranians, and gun-happy rednecks drive me crazy with their violent acts and threats, and their love for weapons, I cannot accept it.

What is the point of continued evolving, if we are only evolving ourselves to death? I mean, humanity desperately needs some goals, and I always thought "world peace" would be a nice one.

But then again, who am I to interfere with the natural process of nature? Isn't getting back in touch with our animalism a big part of sustainability?

Finally, I can't help but think that the Sunni and Shiite civil war is all engineered by the U.S. government. Maybe the Bush Administration is much smarter than we give them credit for -- maybe their goal is to let these two religious factions keep killing each other until all those aggressive young men are gone. Then Iraq would be less of a threat and the entire region would be easier to subjugate. I never put anything past those government neocons -- they are a slick bunch.