Why Do We War?

              Don’t get me wrong, I’m not speaking out against any particular war.  I’ve read my share of history and I can list any number of legitimate reasons for cultures to engage in war throughout time.  My question simply asks why it seems to be an inherent trait in humans and shared by species on other planets.  It’s easier for me to think of war in the abstract since I’ve recently observed it on other planets.   

Perhaps war is simply about survival, religion, economics, and/or greed.  I tend to think it represents a more basic instinct in humans (and others).  In many ways war seems to be just a football game on a grander scale without the death.

Does it have something to do with a need for the destruction of a city/culture/civilization/spirit to force a rebirth and revitalization of these to grow into something greater?  There are numerous examples of destroyed civilizations that were reborn to become stronger than ever or simply better than before in some fashion.

Do we need competition, a natural rival in our lives?  They exist everywhere.  Who can’t name their biggest high school rival?  When’s the last time someone from Minnesota said something nice about a Cheesehead?  How many people watch the Olympics hoping to see the US earn more medals than the Chinese and Russians?  Rivalries seem to come so naturally at every level.

Could it be that even societies have a need to feel superior to someone?  Everyone within a culture feels so much pride after kicking somebody else’s butt.

Maybe it has something to do with the need for distractions from the everyday problems that exist within each culture.  Problems are easy to forget when the dirty, rotten, blank de blanks are attacking.

Or maybe it has something to do with one of a million other possible reasons.  Something to think about.

~ Clark