Recently, I have explained the meaning of war: it can be a part of the economy. That made me consider the origins of human armament. Let’s discuss it.
Why do people arm themselves?
Sometimes, we want to judge people’s claims rationally. Some people make strange claims based on their ideals.
One example is whether people should be armed. We often don’t like getting involved in war, especially if we have an empathic nature.
However, when asked whether people should abandon all weapons for the sake of peace, we may feel discomfort logically. Its causality is wrong. Although weapons, including advanced human technologies, can harm people, human social activities create conflict and hatred, not weapons.
In the first place, we don’t even know what the definition of a weapon is. Our arms and feet can become tools that harm others. Abandoning all weapons is tantamount to abandoning our bodies. It doesn’t make sense.
That is why we want to know why people arm themselves.
History shows us the reason. It tells us that we need to defend ourselves rather than relying on the nations and communities, especially in a turbulent era. Today, I will explain it with the history of human armament. This perspective might allow you to judge conflicts calmly.
Three levels of conflict
Historically, the arming of humans was natural, in my opinion.
There were three levels of conflict, as follows:
- Fundamental level: Life thrives by consuming other life.
- Sociality level: Social animals conflict to secure territory.
- Human level: Humans commit robbery for the sake of efficiency.
Let’s explain each below.
The fundamental arming
The first, fundamental level of arming is that life thrives by consuming other lives. Eating other beings brought efficiency in gathering the materials for the body.
It caused evolution and expansion of the habitable areas. Small fish consume plankton, and sharks eat those fish. In other words, the consumption of other living beings is part of nature’s laws.
The second level of arming
The second level of arming arises from the social-level conflict.
Social animals, such as birds and mammals, have territory. The concept of territory served to protect lives that could not reproduce as much as insects or fish. In other words, territory is a social system designed to avoid pointless deaths. (The details are in this article.)
However, that led to territorial conflicts among the same or similar species. For example, crows attack the black kite due to their similar feeding habits. A wild cat intimidates other cats within its territory.
The same goes for humans. People conflict over territory, both personally and socially.
The third level of arming
The third level of arming is to prevent humans from robbing each other. Beginning agriculture brought this conflict.
Humans began agriculture and started to protect their possessions. Although they spent 5,000,000 years hunting and gathering, they suddenly began farming about 12,000 years ago, for reasons unknown.
Agriculture provided people with a stable food supply, but it also demanded patience. Since people had been hunting and gathering for 5,000,000 years, agriculture was stressful, and they could not adapt to it immediately. That is why we still dislike working and wish to travel all over the world. 12,000 years is too short to adapt to the agricultural lifestyle.
Farming was painful. That was why the crops people grew had value.
On the other hand, people always seek efficiency. They soon understood that it was more efficient to steal or rob someone else’s harvests than to grow crops themselves.
That caused conflicts on a human level. It was a struggle over assets that people had created.
That conflict gave birth to many human social concepts, such as private property, marriage and inheritance, aristocracy, and governance and order under the law. They were necessary to develop human collaboration based on agriculture.
That was why people were armed to protect their assets.
Judging wars calmly
Understanding the three levels of conflict allows us to face wars reasonably. We need to be cautious, especially about the robbery of the third level.
Protect your assets yourself. Don’t try to leave precious things, including managing, to others.
We need to consider protecting the things, starting with those closest to us. In other words, relying on someone else to safeguard our core values can lead to the loss of other important aspects of our lives.
We should also be cautious about the forces close to us. It means that we have to be more wary of our governments taking from us than of interference from distant nations.
If your closer community starts picking on external enemies while ignoring their mistakes, you should be on alert. It often demands new sacrifices from you while making you lose your composure. It is also a kind of scam and robbery.
That perspective allows us to judge war reasonably and calmly.
Conclusion
That is why people arm themselves.
History shows us the reason. It tells us that we need to defend ourselves rather than relying on the nations and communities, especially in a turbulent era.
This perspective might allow you to judge conflicts calmly.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
