Us Against Them

I see what you mean about war being different from personal aggression. The aggression you talked about in your first paragraph is all about dominance and submission. While there is certainly a connection between that and breeding rights, males will frequently fight over dominance even when there are no females within miles of the place. With some individuals, the dominance issue is their main concern, and the breeding is only an afterthought. Young bucks have been observed breeding does in the presence of two fighting stags who are too busy trying to prove who is the better man to notice.

Some bars are friendly bars, and some bars are fighting bars. You can tell the difference as soon as you walk in the door, there is kind of a feeling in the air. Sometimes the owner determines what kind of bar it's going to be, and sometimes the clientele seem to have control of it. I don't think they do it consciously, but it just works out that way.

I think war started out being about dominance and submission, but it has since morphed into being about all the other things you mentioned. I'm sure this didn't happen all at once, but I think that World War II was the watershed. Instead of dominating Germany and Japan and exacting tribute from them, our guys spent a lot of money and effort rehabilitating and rebuilding them. There were even jokes made that the best way for a poor country to become prosperous is to lose a war with the United States. The principle has not been tested since, because our leadership has gone out of its way to insure that we never won another war.

I thought that this Ukraine thing was just a tempest in a tea pot, but it doesn't seem to be simmering down any time soon. I talked to a guy in the supermarket the other day who thinks that Russia is trying to put the old Soviet Union back together again. At first I thought that unlikely since they renounced Communism over 20 years ago, but then I remembered that Russia had imperialistic ambitions long before they turned Communist. Anyway, it got me to thinking that our government has not sent U.S. troops overseas to defend White people since World War II. Well, maybe Bosnia, but those guys were Muslims, so they're not exactly White.

Funny, we think of the Jews as being White, but not the Muslims, even though they are both of the Semitic Race, which is technically White. Well, all the Jews aren't Semites, many of them came from Eastern Europe, but so did the Bosnians. See, this race thing is not just about the color of your skin, it's about whether you're one of them or one of us. Remember we had a discussion once about "Which side are you on?" You didn't want to choose sides, but I think you finally admitted that, if somebody held a gun against your head, you might have to, or something like that. I, on the other hand, am obsessed with the idea that many of the people who claim to be on our side are really on the other side, or on their own side. I know you think that the world would be a better place if we were all on the same side, and maybe you're right, but I don't see that happening any time soon. If it was just you and me, we might be able to work it out, but it's not just you and me.