Gera

War and violence are shunned these days; opponents declare that it is immoral and inhumane. Get off your pretentiously powered, smug oozing high horse. War and violence are inherit traits of nature and Earth. Bear with me...

Eco-systems are a natural state of war. From reproducing to territory control, creatures across the globe partake in violent, sometimes life threatening bouts, to assert their dominance over others. Hence the strong survive and the weak perish. It sucks, but when faced with prolonging the survival of your species would you rather have Mike Tyson or Mother Teresa in your corner.

But it’s in this state of war that we, our species, excel. Neanderthals were bigger than us, stronger than us and almost as smart as us (yeah they also had tools, weapons and built boats). So why did they perish and we endure?

Because curiosity. Neanderthals were trapped, not geographically but intuitively. When they reached a body of water or mountains, they just stopped, probably thought it was too hard and went back home. But we didn’t stop. We went beyond the unknown. Ancient mariners left sea-ports not knowing whether they would find something or whether they’d come back. 

That is why we endure, because of our relentless thirst for knowledge in this chaotic, mystery filled planet. We need war, for peace. As we need volcanoes to erupt, for the lava to form new, fertile land. It’s nature.  

Moral Combat!

The convoluted view of the other, destroys all facets of morality. Good or Bad doesn’t matter, what we crave is self-gratification. We do ‘good’ so we can feel good and vice versa with bad – morality is all selfish.

So is the world’s judicial system; perpetuated and negated at a whim according to the governments self-interest. Ok all of this is pretty obvious but what isn’t is the fact that ‘morality’ changes with time.

At one point in time, I would’ve been commended for ratting out a witch, now witches are sources of fictional entertainment (depending on where you live)

Change the laws? Blaspheme! The Supreme Court love the status quo, they’re lapping up all the monetary and self-gratifying benefits. I guess it’s up to us or maybe another braver/defeated generation to address this.

We (our generation) like to talk big about revolution, but when the time comes and an angry mob asks “are you with us or against us?”, trust that we’ll march – until we need to charge our smartphones.

Void Mentality

We obsess about the void. L’appel Duvide - the call of the void, is the phrase describing the instinctive urge to jump from high places.

Yes, humans are naturally attracted or intrigued by death – not necessarily dying but death. We mourn and bury our dead, we throw festivals in their honour and even dedicate days to fallen heroes.

But as Dr Gregory House once said, ‘you can’t die with honour, you live with it.’ The dead can’t hear us so why do we glorify them? Side note: The void is a connotation of death, but defined it refers to an open space or something not being valid.

We aren’t obsessed with death per-say, but maybe the idea of the unknown. We praise self-less acts like sacrificing one to save many. Dying for a cause, we’ve arrogantly dubbed that martyrdom… And through material death, according to Buddhism, we begin our path to enlightenment.

This is the void mentality. It’s not a negative thing, its just that weird-kid-in-the-back-of-class-that-no-one-ever-spoke-to-after-matric kinda thing. Its in our social structures, our religions & traditions and our very DNA. Michio Kaku explains: