A well-known scene from the war movie "No Man's Land" is a comic and tragic at the same time. There was bloodshed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there was also the bloodshed in Rwanda. The man called to kill a man in a war is surprised about people killing other people in another war. Ludicrous. Or not?
Both wars are now history. But the war, in fact, still continues. Let's take the modern example of continuous warfare. Croatian business weekly "Lider" in February 2010. brings the title "What are your competitors doing?" and adds the subtitle: "The six most important things to spy on at your opponent's side." This article describes the methods of a struggle and the defense on the market, and even quotes the great philosopher of military strategy, Sun-Tzu! This article is so well-done that anybody who is waging war against the competition can learn from it – ice-cream sellers, political parties, sport clubs, religious groups ... Did warfare ever took a break?
Occasionally, for years, I investigate our species' inclination to make war. I found that states, corporations and churches always had a reason for conflict with "the others" and so will always be. And what about my personal aggression? During search for answers about us, I got to know something about behavior of chimpanzees and its relative bonobo.
Led by the aggressive territorial instinct chimpanzees undertake campaigns against rival tribes and, now notice a pattern of behavior, - the pack crosses the boundary of its territory, seeking out individuals, killing males, abducting females and eating their offspring. After a while, when rivals are annihilated, the occupants take their territory. The mechanism is so simple and well-known that every school child can recognize it in all political, religious and other conflicts within our species, now and then.
Bonobo is a different story. No one has ever recorded a brutal territorial conflict between their packs. They cultivate tolerance within their communities, share food, nurse the sick, and for the conflicts they often find a peaceful solution, and also use sex to strengthen relationships. Some women will be pleased when I mention that bonobo communities are ruled by females. Groups of bonobo females calm down aggressive males by outnumbering them, and they are resolving territorial conflicts by making compromises sharing food with the opponents (!). But that's not all. Geneticists have identified a gene within the bonobo genome that has an impact on the reduction of aggression and making bonds. And even more interesting is that we do also have this pacifying gene, while chimpanzees don't.
In 98.6% of genetic material we share with the two other great apes, we recognize, therefore, our own aggression, and pacifism too. Since I can't stop the big-scale hostilities that cause my civilization is sinking, I ask myself what is the least I can do to allow that "bonobo thing", and not the one of aggressive chimp, in me to overcome my own problematic nature?
You would possibly like for me now to exclude reason and simply jabber about an heavenly justice as a solution. But I simply can't. When you mention God, faces frowns: "Which god? Which religion? Which church?" And conflict burst out again. The same mechanism mentioned about bloodshed is at work even in the very churches designed to prepare us for Heaven, and their version sounds like "enter into the territory of others, look for individuals, beat down the opponents using arguments, capture the most suitable ones and bring them so we may be more numerous, and then we can take their territory". Do you need someone constantly to threaten you by Hell in order to make you better? Really? Do not be ridiculous, every church is sending others to Hell, and according to them we all are lost.
It is always the same, and it takes only right "just cause" for political, religious or economic violence, and with no brain, with their institutions' manifesto people can go and oppress others in the name of their kind of justice. Do you really mean that justice from heaven can force you to maintain peace? No, it is generally not helpful, but even makes our relationships getting worse, because we have even divided the very Heaven to accommodate our fractionating. If it isn't like that, we would all be siblings in some kind of healthy faith. Even if you use your reason while reading news, you would see our World wouldn't come to its end next morning because there are so many wonderful individuals you share this life with, but ideologies are dividing us. But if you think and take an education, there are solutions. People like you are constantly struggling for life and for their place under the sun, choosing good or bad way to do that, depending if there are selflessness and common sense invoked. Willingness for selflessness is in you. Just recall that great feeling when you shared something, and that crippled feeling when you only received something.
God of my favorite ape achieved the triumph by genetic engineering, and then put the gene of goodness in us. The difference is that bonobo is living its whole life by impulse of his good genes, and we who consider ourselves more progressive are often subjected to the urge of violence - by our own will. When you think your political involvement made you better, or you'll be good just because of blind obedience to Allah and Sharia law, or that you will be holy and good only when Jesus commands you to do so, because you have weak character, you actually do not think. Would you think, you would know what is good and what is wrong. But if it is helpful for you to go such a way, just do it – become a member of a political party, repent before the Invisible, pray, punish yourself, meditate. But remember - bonobo females have only the gene and the instinct. We do have all of that and much more: the gene, the instinct, faith, hope, Jesus, Allah, prayer, the whole army of saints, meditation, free will, wives and mothers who would never start a war if you would ever ask them, and also our intellect and education.
Use your head every day, starting now, be careful when you pass "the border of your territory", when you are leaving your comfort, and watch over the way you today approach people around you - your child, your spouse, your partner, mother, neighbors, merchants, colleague. Will it be with the arguments, insults, gossip, or you can offer a compromise, with the gift in your hands, smile, invitation for dinner, saying "goodbye", "I love you", "I'm glad to see you", "how are you?" – that's purely your choice.
Thinking means making decisions, and not just following the impulse – that's why we are humans and not the apes.
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