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It's hard to think through the implications of living in a world where it is accepted that countries with more power simply invade each other and take land and
by zmmmmm 10mo ago
It's hard to think through the implications of living in a world where it is accepted that countries with more power simply invade each other and take land and possessions from those with less power. I can't think how it doesn't ultimately lead to broadscale instability and ultimately, war. In turn it depresses me that this is toxic to the humanity progressing and solving its bigger picture problems.
- lbrito 10mo agoNo imagination is necessary: we've been there. The 1800s were exactly that and culminated in two world wars on the next century.
- augusto-moura 10mo agoYou can even go further, _all_ human history had stronger groups taking things from weaker groups. On the classical era of Aristotle and on the paleolithic pre-history. We sometimes forget that humanity can be cruel and work only for self-interest, we like to think that war and pillaging is something from the past, but it will be forever with us
- bdangubic 10mo ago[flagged]
- culi 10mo agoThis isn't universally true. There are actually a very large amount of cultures where we have ZERO evidence of violence. E.g. for the Sámi in southern Scandanevia we have zero evidence of violence. Similarly the Tripolye culture in modern Ukraine/Moldova/Romania is famous for building megaworks and housing for up to 15,000 people. But despite this large population there is virtually zero evidence of walls/forts/moats/any defensive fortifications. Not specialized weapons. Evidence of large-scale warfare in prehistoric periods is also extremely rare in general. Most violence we have evidence for seems to be driven by personal conflict. This could just be due to decreased population densities but the conclusion that humans have always widely used war or organized violence is certainly not supported by the existing evidence
- horns4lyfe 10mo agoJust the 1800s? We’ve been doing for the past 150 years at least
- hattmall 10mo agoIsn't it literally all of history??
- 0xDEAFBEAD 10mo agoSpeaking of the 1800s, I wonder if we could learn anything about peace in a multipolar world by studying the Concert of Europe. Might be a good topic for a historian to write a book about. I'm looking right now, and it's kinda sad to see so many books about WW1 and so few about the peaceful period which came before.
- Xenoamorphous 10mo agoYears of advocating against bullies, my takeaway from this thread is “the US did this because it can”. So bullying is ok now I guess. I’m sure it had nothing to do with oil too, just about democracy.
- horns4lyfe 10mo agoWhen has the US not been the bully?
- throw-12-16 10mo agoA lot of people woke up to the news and had their initial "Are we the bad guys?" moment. As a non American its pretty funny to watch.
- mattmaroon 10mo agoNo, they didn’t, and if your media tells you that’s what’s happening, it’s either misinformed or propaganda (or both). Our political left already thinks we’re the bad guys. Our political right is posting pictures of eagles on Facebook. Nobody feels any different than they did yesterday.
- jacquesm 10mo agoIf they don't that's on them.
- mattmaroon 10mo agoWhy? It really isn’t anything new. The only new thing is the admission it is for oil, which we usually pretend it isn’t. Those of us who are opposed to it probably didn’t vote for Trump and surely have no foreign policy influence, which is the same as when Bush invaded Iraq. Same old song and dance.
- 10mo ago
- throw-12-16 10mo agoThats all of human history. Our biggest problem is us, the Earth will be a much better place when we are gone.