Im not as educated on war as some people, but war and conflict seem to be a very important and ongoing part of human history. But why is so hard to avoid conflict and maintain peace?
Im not as educated on war as some people, but war and conflict seem to be a very important and ongoing part of human history. But why is so hard to avoid conflict and maintain peace?
Comments
unite under what, we would all disagree who should be in charge and who has power under what system. violence has always existed while living beings exist
“Everyone wants to save the world. They just disagree on how.”
humans gonna human
One-sentence explanation of history: Humanity’s priorities are messed up.
There’s no profit to be made from peace
Cultural differences are a big one.
Resources are finite and everyone wants them
We are not as smart and forward-thinking as we’d like to believe
War is also really the only way to exert autonomy over another nation.
That was one of the big things with the UN. Ideally the UN is a governing body with representatives from all countries. In theory, big items would be voted on and countries would implement those decisions. However, for that to work, countries must give up power to another body. Or in other words -“I don’t agree with a decision that was made, but I will abide by it and ask my nation full of people with their own needs and wants to do xyz even though it doesn’t benefit them”
It’s incredibly unrealistic to believe that people who have been granted power in some way will surrender that power to another body. So the UN has no real authority and countries still make their own decisions. Truthfully, the EU speaks to a rare time in which this worked, however the culture of those countries were similar enough to where that worked. But there has been pushback in which some countries complain about EU rulings, resist changes, etc.
Greed
When more than one countries economy is dependent on selling weapons, then, war is all we will get. World Peace, at this point, would destroy the current economic system.
Humans suck at choosing their leaders.
Propaganda
Greed!
Why would you want to unite with them when you can rule over them?
Competition, the war for resources and markets.
Human nature….
Country 1: We want peace!
Country 2: Okay but only if you pay us for the wrongs you have committed in the past
Country 1: But you also wronged us! So you should pay us instead!
Country 3: *sees opportunity to further its position in this conflict so it also starts heating up the arguments*
Because 1% of humans will always be sociopathic narcissists who want to conquer and enslave everyone else. Human nature has a flaw in its genes.
Putin belives democracy is weak. And that west is out to destroy him and russia (same thing in his imo)
He thinks best way to protect him is to return borders of USSR. Propaganda fits thisbworld view. To him ukrainians are fake. And evil people prevent them from joining russia.
And that evil westerners brainwash ukrainians.
What am I trying to say: some people have not got the message of democracy. And unfortunately they lead systems capable of spreading this fear
Other reason is naked capitalism. You know that version where poor people work in terrible conditions so peoplenin rich part of world becomes richer and more ignorant.
In tldr: we share the same planet, we do not share the same world (view)
Before it was that we didn’t understand each other and struggled for resources. Currently it’s mostly US imperialism. Later, it could be Chinese imperialism or Russian imperialism who knows or actual unity. Who knows
Because the rest of them refuse to agree with me.
Cause I like being able to criticise those in power and in the vast majority of the world heavily criticising or competing with those in power gets you shot.
So those who want that freedom and those who want to take it are opposed in a way that can not be united.
Because everyone more for our group and sometimes survival means taking it form other groups. This has always been the case and will most likely always be the case.
Countries are just people with leaders. The world stage is not different from the schoolyard.
“My religion is right”
“No! Mine is”
That pretty much sums it up
Money
Look on YouTube for a video by real life lore something like ‘why the Middle East will always be at war’
Money.
You’re never going to get 10 random people to unilaterally agree on anything and there are over 8 billion people on Earth.
Because people populate countries and generally fall into 4 categories: sheep; assholes; couch potatoes and/or pussies. Not to say there aren’t exceptions, but most people fit into one or more of these categories.
I blame the leaders they stoke the fires .
So all the animals got together and decided how to be at peace. The American Eagle looked at the British Lion and said “We must abolish claws.” The British Lion looked at the Chinese Dragon and said “We must abolish fangs”, and the Chinese Dragon looked at the American Eagle and said “We must abolish talons”, and one by one, they all proposed abolishing each other’s weapons.
Until finally the Russian Bear stood up and said “Let us abolish all weapons, and instead share a great, universal embrace!”
We designated ourselves as “humans” because our brains give us the ability to interpret the world “intelligently”, but we’re animals. We live like the animals. Not living in idyllic peace comes from people trying to exert their ideas of peace on the world…go figure.
Because people are imperfect and want things whether they are reasonable or not.
Capitalism.
It’s needs forever war, to function.
If there isn’t an enemy, it will create one.
AmeriKKKa has been at war for 93% of its entire existence.
Conflicting religions are a big part.
We are biologically programmed to strike a balance between competition within the group, and competition between groups.
There’s also a pretty hard ceiling when it comes to how large any group can be based on personal connections at around 100-120 people. The slow development of living in larger communities requires the development of common cultural connections and a large bureaucracy to manage our tendency to distrust anyone outside of our personal sphere of relation.
Those cultural delineations can foster competition and conflict in times of turmoil.
People want different, contradictory things.
Religion – The is an insubstantial product that causes unwarranted behaviors in exchange for standardized societal norms and the natural suppression of anti oligarch aggression from the poor.
Fake Race – The recognition that your neighbor may have different roots than you allows you to think about undermining if not harming them to maintain an advantage for your tribe.
Scarcity of Resources – We do not have enough Earth to provide the Western way of life to 7 Billion people (assuming they even want to live this way). People who have just enough want more. People who don’t have enough want some. People who have almost everything… want the rest.
We hate to admit it, but we are animals – To a certain extent we will always have individuals who are more prone to violence than any other thing. We warehouse these people and others in the military because having them walk around the streets unguided is a bad day for everyone. We fight to kill some of them off every now and then. /s
Religion it’s the dumbest thing in the world
Religion.
Countries have competing interests. War is merely “the continuation of diplomacy through other means”. You can always avoid war by just giving in to every demand from you neighbors. But that will quickly lead to your annexation by a stronger country. War is a means to put pressure on your rival, and see who want the most to be awarded whatever it is that you are fighting over. Think of it like union strikes and corporate lock-outs. Both parties suffer in the process, but they hold out in the hope that they will have a better situation afterwards. You could avoid strikes if you simply kept agreeing to the unfavourable demands made by the other party, but sometimes it’s just completely unacceptable to you and you would rather stand your ground even if it means that you’ll have to battle it out.
Lmao you think the world is a dystopia now, you are just not prepared of how dystopic it will be once that happens.
It’s inevitable, don’t worry, villages became cities, cities became tribes, tribes became nations. Now nations are uniting. It’s just a matter of time.
But it will be dystopic as fuck, because there will be absolutely nobody to keep in check those in power.
Because someone always has more and other people want to take what’s not theirs.
Because humans aren’t nearly as evolved as they like to think they are.
Because some people are just assholes.
My take: unequal resources. Knowing that resources can be sparse makes our lizard brains want to hoard it. It makes us possessive, selfish, and greedy. It causes us to immigrate where we become more different from each other. That allows opportunists to cultivate power.
We’re so ingrained in historic wrongs and superficial differences, so brainwashed by bigots. We’re a flawed species and some of those flaws bring us to genocide, nuclear bombs, billionaires.
I think you and I have benefitted from how we were raised around such vast diversity and technology. I’ve been able to travel to other countries and see first hand how we are the same despite being so different. I’ve been able to see with my eyes photos and footage of the horrors of modern warfare. I didn’t grow up in a household that worshipped soldiers. I don’t think it was so common to have these experiences or perspective.
Greed, power hungry, need to feel superior, etc. You know, humans…
War is profitable, and the power hungry will feed us plebs to the machine to get their piece of the pie.
think of countries as hormonal teens and i think you have your answer.
Questions back at you OP:
Do you get along well with every single person you ever met (including relatives)?
Does every person you ever met like their lot in life (Home/family/spouse/work/pay/things they own) and are totally content?
Do you 100% agree with the views of every other person on the planet?
Are you willing to give everything you own to support anyone who wants your stuff?
Are you willing to nearly starve your entire life to keep someone in a far off place you never met feed?
Are you willing to work a job that is horrible in all ways, because you are told you have to to sustain other people in other places, for your entire life?
Do you believe that there is no such thing as a personal insult?
Do you think that all political, religious and cultural views and customs are basically the same.
If you answer No to any of these questions, then you know the answer to your question.
Also, If you have ever seen two neighbors argue over a fence (placement, height, color, type, etc.) you know why people all over the world can’t get along. It’s basically the same thing but on a different scale.
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Because we are scared tribal monkeys still at heart.
The liberal ideology. Liberalism is very very literally focused, especially when it comes to societal norms and ethics. Liberals believe the needs and the wants of the individual grossly outweigh the needs and importance of society as a larger whole. A groups of liberals can band together to “fight against” traditional norms and ethics, but when it comes to governance, they shit themselves. None of them can see past their own needs and wants and will NEVER put the greater good of society above their needs/wants. If putting their wants aside comes at the benefit of improving society, they will in fact let everything around them burn.
The short answer is that it is higher reward for some parties to not be at peace. The moment war gives little to no reward that will stop.
Historically nations had more wars because pretty much more land = more production = more wealth, and you can just acquire land by war and be wealthier, now it is often not as much so we see less wars.
Now wars can be for resources, but also sometimes strategic, like waging wars on a rising regional economic power, and things like that.
Religion and Culture
Because humans are not all peaceful creatures who are the same things. We have differences between our cultures, let alone between people. Additionally the people in power are the ones most likely to get power, especially in more…unsavoury places. The leaders of places like Russia, China, N. Korea and every despot leader in Africa are the types of people who will do anything to get power and do even worse things to keep it.
Power attracts ambitious people and often ambitious people want more than what they have.
War>peace there’s always money to be made in war.
Short answer: money and power.
Because of power dynamics. The global south is at the mercy of super-powers, which happens to mostly be consolidated in the west. There is no peace because of ideologies surrounding the reality of neocolonialism.
Men are competing to see who has the biggest you know
Because they want conflicting things. Some of us want democracy. Some of us want authoritarianism. Some of us want Jesus and insist everyone else must too. Some of us want to be left alone. Some of us believe wealth should be distributed. Some of believe what’s mine is mine. War happens because we have some things we feel very strongly about and we can’t agree on what is actually important.
Because you have the most powerful people in the world with the character of Grump.
Idiots vote for arseholes. That’s the short verson
Let me rephrase your question:
Is it easy for you to unite and be at peace with every single person you meet?
No? Why is that so hard?
The answer comes from game theory. International relations appear complicated but it all boils down to a basic concept whereby if you and I co-operate, we both win the game, but if either of us pretends to co-operate while screwing the other, the other loses and when he realizes he’s been cheated, it’s too late. That’s it.
I really hope this question is from a 12 year old and not an adult lmfao
Greed, religion, racism, misogyny all get in the way
Resources are limited, and folks want a lot of stuff.
My brother is an asshole and I’m gonna fuck up anyone that disagrees with me. – Sun Tzu, or Mao, or Cao Cao, or Jorge Washington, Napolean, Alexander, Muhammed, or Barbarossa, Stalin, King whatever the whatever. The lead monkey, or a clan of ants; plant species or corals in the sea. All are committed to the survival of their clan at the expense of others. It is life fighting for itself; it is the most basic law of nature.
Differing views and foundational beliefs.
People are greedy for things that don’t belong to them, so they take it by force.
34th rule of acquisition: War is good for business
Because the normal people who live in those countries allow awful people to be leaders, in many cases, actively helping them achieve power.
Religion
Just see what goes on here.
Because my countries perspective is substantially different from most others, and that applies to every country on earth. What I take as a given in ethics or morality, another country may have the prevailing opinion that my thoughts are dangerous and unethical.
In addition to all other comments: humans weren’t really ‘designed’ for this life. Early humans (and similar species to us) live in small clans and packs, not a massive world in which I can talk to someone thousands of miles away. Like many parts of society, we are doing things every day that go completely against our inner animal instincts.
Experience shapes beliefs – and we all have so many different experiences. And then you can’t take the ego out of the equation or the human
Xenophobia and ethnocentrism.
It’s not logical. But it’s a thing
Widely different beliefs. Finite resources. Tribalism. History. Misunderstanding. Dislike between people. A thousand reasons big and small.
Because sometimes life is hard and a lot of people can’t cope with that unless they blame it on someone else
Let me tell you, I’m from india and our own people can’t be united,they hate others simply because they are not born as same religion or caste as them, so to answer is simple people from one country cannot be united because of a stupid beliefs they have, then countries cant, i might be wrong but this is what i know.
Religion.
Greed and beliefs
Same reason why it’s so hard for 30 kids in a classroom not to pick on the 1 weird kid..
I have a cousin who wants to chemically castrate people so they can’t have kids until they pass a test. I’d this something you would be willing to allow? If not how do you compromise with such people? Now do that on a global scale
People will fight over the sky being blue even if the sky is clearly blue. Peace and unity is impossible
Democracy is historically recent.
Barely more than 100 years ago, international law didn’t exist and you could just invade a place, kill people, take their stuff and send your people to live into their houses and that was considered a legitimate use of state power.
It was widely understood that the goal of any country was ultimately to conquer the entire world.
Today, that worldview is considered too conservative for the mainstream, is usually only advanced in secret and only seriously defended by people who defend Israel holding on to their possessions since the 6 day war.
If conservatism remains ascendant, peace will be harder.
Because you can’t really have durable peace when you are working from the assumption that the goal of countries is to conquer.
Because every country has something the other countries want and refuse to give fair compensation for. That’s why we have politicians. Never acquire through war what you can get through lies and double talk
Religion mostly I think. Also greed.
We are social creatures so we have a tendency to create families, clans, nations.
And that’s great for survival.
We live in a world of scarcity, and so when two groups want the same thing, there will be conflict.
That conflict then is amplified as the “sides” are formed and then you have conflict.
everybody has different standards and what ideas you would want to do in some crisis like if there was an asteroid coming to earth only 1 person would be able to decide what would happen. 8 BILLION people would have to agree or disagree. rascism is another part for some people to avoid conflict. my friends friends are very rascists. (these are hypothetical). and the language difference would be really hard to communicate with eachother. they’re devices to translate that but who would want to constantly translate with people with work related things, ordering food, and daily life.