To carry on from before:
There has been a story in the news this morning that a Palestinian gang has shot and killed the three children of a Palestinian security officer, as they they were being driven to school. Now, let's leave aside any considerations of Israel versus the rest of the middle east. This mindless action is so clearly part of our inherent violence. There is no logical purpose in such violence, because it only makes the "other" side more angry, and perpetuates division. But those who allow themselves to be violent in this way would not thank anyone for pointing out their animal origins.
Less "advanced" animals do kill or injure their own kind, but usually only when food or females are at stake. The more intelligent the species, the more it makes the connection between violence at any time, and the furtherance of its own grouping. Thus the chimps will seek out and kill weak members of another group at any time, and often go on expeditions (wars, crusades) to do so, because they feel instinctively that it supports their own group, which gives them power, and ultimately control over better food and fornication. In primitive societies, such violence in the end pays off, and the strong group holds sway, and therefore passes on its genes to successive generations.
The greater intelligence of the apes presumably comes from the necessity to outwit slower but stronger animals, in order to kill them for food, or to avoid being killed, and thereby to survive. But the violence itself was a by-product of food and perceived territory shortages in less advanced animals, although used less deviously by them. It has largely died out in the bonobos, who, as I understand it, have lived for millennia in territories where food is plentiful.
An interesting by-product of the bonobos' progression to non-violence is that the females generally hold sway, with female to female relationships cemented by intense and (obviously) non-procreative sex. If one of the males gets uppity, the girls gang up together and give him what for, without undue violence. Leaving aside any sexual aspersions, we have some female members of this forum who would make good bonobos!
I think it is deceptive to talk of humans as one species. To a large degree we are exactly that, of course, but there are so many differences between us that one might see homo sapiens as a genus in the early stages of division. Many of us are not violent, including most people on this forum, I would guess, but there are many very violent people out there in the world. All of this is complicated by inheritance and by the surroundings in which people find themselves.
Distinguishing people on the basis of colour is illegal in most countries, and is probably a red herring anyway, because the acqusition or loss of skin colour is such a relatively recent trait. But just as we can easily see that young men are in general more violent than other humans, on account of the chemicals racing around in their brains, we should not ignore the likelihood that some humans are congenitally more violent than others. It is all very complicated, because the human race has moved around the planet for millennia, so that the less violent and the more violent are thoroughly mixed up nowadays. The bonobos were luckier, in that they became geographically separated from the chimps, which made a progression toward peacefulness much easier to achieve for them, and more obvious to observe for us.
I am not optimistic about the future of humanity. I am generally cheerful on a day-by-day basis, but in the long or even medium term I think we are likely to annihilate most of our brothers and sisters. We have been clever enough to invent some very powerful weapons, and in the end they are bound to be used, as I see it. Whether by nuclear, biological or chemical means, some individuals will eventually succeed in killing large swathes of humanity, and the horror of it all will not prevent others from following suit. Indeed, it will encourage them.
One cannot blame religion, which is only a manifestation of the stage we have reached in our intelligence and society. The unspoken stick or carrot of the afterlife has held societies in check for many centuries, and the problems now come because science has explained away most of the known unknowns that caused the Romans to think the Sun was a God, or the Christians to believe that we couldn't add a cubit to our stature. You want a cubit, sunshine? Go visit an orthopaedic surgeon!
I have a meeting of the Friends of the Pianola Institute in two hours, and a guest coming to stay tonight, and I haven't yet done the washing up. Philosophy and conjecture will have to wait again. But I've said enough to draw out some contrary views, if anyone is actually interested.
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