Save us From Ourselves
2000.11.02 (A grade)
Marywood University
Peace is the elusive shadow that has mercilessly taunted humankind through the ages. We are deceived by illusions of progress and manufacture a misguided certitude that peace is attainabe and even imminent.
Through our distorted convictions, a twisted irony emerges from the callous way killing is vindicated to further peace. We manipulate the definition of morality to indulge our purposes with an ill-conceived sense of righteoousness and spare our conscience from culpability.
We publically reaffirm our alliance with justice while we privately conspire to dismember its compononents by refining the principles into conformity with our actions.
We declare peace with ourselves, with one another, and with nature. Although, there doesn’t seem to be anything natural about peace in our world. In fact, we are given very little representation in nature from which an [example] of peace can be derived. The animalistic instinct to kill extends well beyond hunting to survive or as an act of self-defense.
Throughout the animal kingdom many species are predisposed to engage in ferocious aggression and even cold-blooded murder. This behavior may be evoked over territorial disputes or dangerous mating rituals. In some instances, logic fails to explain why animals can attack viciously and without provocation.
It is only the ability to reason separating humans from the other members of the animal world, so then it is a reasonable assumption that we must be subjected to the same animalistic instincts. It beckons the question whether these propensities are innately conceived and are a precept to our existence. A platform to establish theoretical reasoning begins with a closer look at human behavior over time.
Exercising reflection on this issue elicits tenable conjecture to support any claim that we have a congenital disposition toward hostility. A conspicuous pattern of perpetual conflict is manifest in nearly every cognitive historical scholarship.
Even moderate rationality ushers one to the presumption that universal tranquility has been, and will remain, foreign to the human capacity. Evidence of incessant human improprieties are incarnated by a variety of historical incidents that landmark record.
In the Name of God
No other aspect of an earthly existence inspires more passion in the human emotion than the concept of “God.” However, true religion has been left to human interpretation. Therefore, religious doctrines have evolved from a multitude of representatioons, each asserting claims to authenticity.
This has set the stage for ardent followers form opposing perspectives to face off in bitter contention. Conflicts spawned from contrasting views on religion are a salient feature of historical record.
The notorious Christian Crusades epitomizes the violence and bloodshed that were malicioulsly administered under the false pretense of divine inspirations.
1n 1095, the first of the crusades commenced under the blessings of Pop Urban II (Chronology of the Crusades)The ensuing carnage persisted over the next three hundred years. Sanctioned by the Church and regarded as a “holy pilgrimage,” it served as a way for Christians to appease their sins with God.
According to Ausin Cline, author of Religion & Violence, “People paid penance for their sins by going off and slaughtering adherents of another faith.” These crusaders firmly believed they were doing God’s will by executing his enemies.
In fact, their convictions were actively affirmed by church leaders, “Ordained bishops followed along to bless the atrocities and make sure they were showing Church approval.
Wars of Rapcity
Unlike faith-based conflict where the intellect is ofent impaired by strong emotion, campaigns launched solely to sieze control over another culture’s resources are far more difficult to justify. Hence, it is often part of a hidden agenda veiled by reasons easier to justify.
When these elements of opportunity are incorporated into the dissension it not only augments existing motives, but intensifies the hostility to unprecedented levels. Enticed by a sense of entitlement we want that which we consider valuable, an epidemic of greed suffuses the population and disables contentment. An insatiable appetite to covert the resources escalates internal support by effacing the injustice. These economic objectives compels the dominant culture police the world and bring resolutions where once was conflict.
Human Diversity: Slavery
Feelings of misconceived indignation are seemingly cultivated by the heterogeneous nature of our species. The traditional response to cultural diversity has been to exploit and foster misconceptions of inferiority. A fabricated rationalization facilitates an obligation to introduce superior customes and impose advanced technology on the savage and the forsaken. When the indigenous culture’s response is acrimonious, the’re quickly branded an enemy and divested of civil enlightenment.
Contempt escalates toward the culture, and competnet opporutnists see another valuable resource in the people themselves. The only potential impediment lies in articulating justification sufficient to appease the general consensus of public morality.
This isn’t so hard if you exploit the disdain already spreading and portraying the African as a sub-specie race that fail to fully qualify as the accepted definition of human.
The author of Chronology of World Slavery, Junnis Rodriguez, records world slavery from the earliest known incidents. “Slavery has existed in some form in every part of the world and, at least, since victors of battles in Jericho in 800 B.C.E. spared their captives for the explicit purpose of enslavement.
The subjugation of other human beings gained popularity as substantiated by an excessive cycle of repitition since then.
The practice of slavery did indeed endure time. In the 19th Century, it divided a nation and incited the American Civil War. Although slaves were emancipated with the North’s victory, their oppression was continued long after gaining liberty.
As recently as the 1960’s, renowned civil rights leader, Martin Luther Kinkg Jr wrote a compelling letter during his incarceration in Birmingham, Alabama that truly puts racial segregation in context:
“When you have seen viscious mobs lynch your mothers and father at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim, where you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an afluent society…when your first name becomes “nigger” and your middle name become “boy.”
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