War: The Eternal Division of Mankind

The most enduring principle in the history of diplomacy and international politics goes thus: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

The most dramatic social movement demonstrating this principle was initial Western backing for early 1930s Fascism against the greater enemy, Communism.

The entire history of man is the history of tribes (now nation-states) and their cultivated enemies, of division and conflict. Now it is cloaked, however, in that eternal justification-for-war phrase:

"maintaining the balance of power." —the relentless geopolitics of power competition. 

It is why, when Communism fell, it was stated this epochal event represented:

 "The end of history" —the end of superpower conflict.

It proved not to be, now that we have the never ending war on terrorism' and the relentless rise again of Russian nationalism.

It's the Us and Them game all over again.

Humanity needs wars; democracy needs wars (in America they refer to it as 'endless militarism') — enemies/wars are used by the political leadership to focus the minds of the general public, distracting many from other valid concerns.

Wars are also great energizers; enemies give a direction and purpose to daily life. They are also the greatest stimulus to business profits (the military-industrial complex), as well as to military and then civil invention.

We are all implicated in this war machine. The vast majority believe in a 'just war,' or 'righteous war,' — a concept that goes back to Roman times and is sanctioned by the Catholic Church and its theologians. It is interpreted by the U.S. to be cases where the national defense and national security of countries is at stake from aggression (behind all wars is the love of country?).

This is pitted, of course, against 'unjust wars.'

Thus World War II is seen as justifiable, to counter the aggression of two bellicose nations — and the appeasement of these two countries was reviled. Even though this national aggression was inititally sanctioned by the very powers that later took up arms to defeat it.

We are all complicit in these wars, in this identification with something greater than ourselves, the country we live in, or the god of some religion and philosophy we revere, all of which is an elaborate extension of the self.

We all accept and condone this social system built on power, domination and exploitation of others. We simply do not challenge this system in a deep and consistent way, as it gives us satisfaction in so many ways.

In this very real sense, we are the system, we buttress it — we are the world. We have simply never understood that military aggression (as in the US with its military push against Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan) only provokes counter aggression, whether national, religious or individual jihad.

Man talks endlessly about peace but the last thing he really wants is for wars to end (unless the war threatens free trade among the wealthier nations, then all means are employed to avoid conflict, lest the profits of the multinational corporations be threatened).

The war-profiteering global arms industry is a lucrative business in each nation's drive for economic superiority, which is really what the competitive game of nations is all about.

This game (which includes the threat of war — the need of nations to rearm to defend themselves against perceived enemies - rather than actual war itself), is as old as the superiority of the dominant tribe, demonstrating yet again there has been no evolution of the human mind.

Only a steady decline, walking alongside the ever greater sophistication of the technological advances in warfare. [source]

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This article has been reprinted from Beyond the Mind with permission