Life is conflict, survival, and conquest!

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

It is funny, we try so very hard in modern society to condition everyone that conflict and often its resulting violence is a bad, bad, bad thing. We jump straight to the most heinous  types of violence and conflict, get really, really, really scared and then try to lump everything that nature intended under one thing and work very hard to condition everyone, regardless, against this so very terrible thing called conflict and violence. 

I was asked the other day, by one of my neighbors, how I could possibly believe that conflict, violence and both survival and conquest could possibly be about life except in those most odious and wicked ways it is used today by terrorists and very dangerous predators on our streets. Here is how I answered that question:

First, the very nature of the universe is born from a very violent act - the big bang.

Second, the human body is about conflict and violence because the very nature - of nature - is about duality and conflict where that head-butting nature causes violence such as our brains. Our brains are fundamentally two parts. the left side and the right side. Those two aspects of nature in our brain work in a mutually beneficial way but through conflict and a type of psychological violence. One side is more like the emotional side while the other is more logical in nature (not truly how this works but on a very basic non-expert but easily understood way, it works) so lets just say there is this huge wonderful chocalate cake sitting there. One side says to you, “Hey, your favorite, go have a huge piece.” The other side of your brain counters, “Hey, if you do, your body and mind will suffer the consequences such as weight gain, health loss, fitness issues and medical repercussions such as diabetes and its issues and physical and mental problems (this is a type of violence to your body).” 

Your body, by merely moving is in conflict with things like gravity, it pulls down on your body so your body must counter the pull using muscles, skeletal system and so on to remain standing and to walk and run, etc. all forms of conflict or what you could say is friction but since there are two sides pulling against one another it can be seen as both conflict and violence. 

I heard him begin to balk and working in other words to describe what that process is but in a very basic and fundamental way, it is violence. Then I said, “Do you and your wife ever argue?” He, as I expected, said yes and my immediate response was, “Then you are in conflict with your wife.” I then asked, “Do you guys ever shout and yell when the argument gets to a certain point where it is very sensitive to either one of you or both?” He again said, “Well, yeah, that is kind of normal.” I then said, but shouting is violence and I would call it psychological violence used to make your spouse go along with what you want and believe, right?

It took a few more examples similar to this all the way up to the arguments and sometimes social man-to-man fights such as occur at sport events, etc., along with types of attacks that could involve things like robberies, where facing a gun and not getting shot is still violence, and how about those disagreements in business meetings, etc. They all involve some form or type of conflict and violence. 

We are all animals or better yet organisms that have a very basic instinctual need to survive and survival, even in our mostly safe modern times, stull exists and we still use it even if we call it something else and justify it because it doesn’t meet what we think conflict and violence are as in police encounters that escalate to levels of forces that cause harm; the military participation in world events toward social survival; and that self-fense you had to use to protect yourself and family against predatory like actions. Boyd quote to follow:

The goal of organisms, according to Boyd, is:

• To survive, survive on own terms, or improve our capacity for independent action. The competition for limited resources to satisfy these desires may force one to:
• Diminish adversary’s capacity for independent action, or deny him the opportunity to survive on his own terms, or make it impossible for him to survive at all.

Life is conflict, survival, and conquest!

• it may be advantageous to possess a variety of responses that can be applied rapidly to gain sustenance, avoid danger and diminish an adversary’s capacity for independent action.
• Organisms must also cooperate and harmonize their activities in their endeavors to survive as an organic synthesis.
• Furthermore to shape and adapt to change, one cannot be passive, but instead one must take the initiative.
• Thus variety, rapidity, harmony and initiative seem to be the key qualities that permit one to shape and adapt to an ever-changing environment.

These things still exist even tho social conditions work so hard to re-label them to more acceptable and appropriate ways. After all, would you not be able to admit that the recent results of the real estate fall that caused so many to lose so much as a form of violence, i.e., the actions of a few that caused such economical and psychological damage even to some dying by suicide, etc., as violence from the conflicts that arose from their actions to take away your ability to survive? 

I believe to better understand such life we need to admit and embrace our very nature and in lieu of simply burying our heads in the sand because certain subjects make us feel fearful we learn more about it and then through the experiences of those who live with it along with our understandings create ways to not ignore conflict and violence but to create “Coping Skills” appropriate to such things as avoidance and deescalation where we come to create a way to cope with such things through knowledge and understanding making a better survival tool box for socially acceptable ways to handle those very things that make life so scary - call it better survival primal conditioned responses.

I didn’t forget about the reference to conquest but that also comes down to the survival instincts of humans. When resources become so scarce it puts the tribe in a position where they have to confront and conquer other groups to get access to those resources. After all, much like the movies, it is either them or us. Now, take that and place it in modern society. We run our economy of conquering other businesses to obtain resources. It may not be actually limited in nature but competition in business does get to a level where perceptions say, “Oh, if I don’t conquer that business then their resources will be greater than ours and that is unacceptable (Note: there are other factors from psychological positions that also drive that business model as to status and position, etc. but that is another whole article/story). 

Then there is the modern view of, “Competing with the Joneses!” This is also a perception of humans toward position and status within a tribe where that conflict, be it between neighbors or within ourselves, may end up in violence. Neighbor law and legal actions are known to be the most contentious, chaotic and anger producing aspects of modern society than most realize (I speak from experience on this one, bloody damn process if I do say so myself). It took a couple of years before those neighbors would even nod their heads in passing. 

Bibliography (Click the link)

p.s. ever wonder why action films and movies on the various American wars like Korea, Viet Nam and now the Afghanistan, etc. wars are so popular? Hey, did you watch the movie 300 and did you enjoy it, it must have some connection and must appeal to some subconscious perceptions regarding conflict and violence don’t you think?