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Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
That's for you to not want to be willing to take another life. I crossed that line long ago when I picked up my first firearm. I knew at that moment I was able to quickly and decisively wipe another life off the planet in one second flat. I accepted that responsibility with the next shot I squeezed off.
I will protect me and mine, and if that means you don't get to live another day, that is my choice and decision. It does not mean I will sleep well at night, but it does mean I will sleep while the other individual is dead.
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I can't help but think that's war. Everyone has an amazing justification for why they need to kill someone. I've heard quite a few. We've all heard Bush go on. I'm sure everyone who's ever taken a life can claim that "freedom" or "protecting my country/family/friends/etc." was a valid reason. So if this hypothetical phantom bent on killing you and your family steps over that line, you've already made up your mind that you're taking his life.
What if you were the last person on the planet willing to make that claim? What if it was you who stood between war and peace?
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Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
But you are making this not about conflict but about war. What is the definition of war? Crompsin seems to have been within the "conflict" but cannot locate the war. At what point does a conflict change and become war? And why is then a conflict acceptable for carnage and death?
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Originally Posted by Willravel, post #18
Cromp: war is wherever there is a state of violent, large scale conflict between two or more groups of people (wiki).
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Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
As far as some small examples, how does the gangs in your neck of the woods operate? In my world from the gangs of Los Angeles to the crime families in NYC. They sometimes have skirmishes or conflicts, but sometimes they have all out wars.
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And they're wrong, of course. I wonder, what works better for stopping gangs: prevention or reaction?
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Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
Again, I have to say that the human condition creates the conflict, the human condition expands it to war.
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That's after a million levels of conflict, though. It's not like conflict, then war. I would think that there can be, somewhere between conflict and war, a time when someone can stop the escalation.
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Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
People kill others for any reason, so far in the 16 years I have lived in the NY area, people have been killed for $.25, sneakers, leather jacket, ipod, looked at them the wrong way, no reason but being in the same subway car, bestf friend jealousy over a girl, complaining about the noise as someone was working.
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And those things can be prevented. Poverty breeds desperation. Without poverty, that desperation subsides. I'd say the cold blood killings come from mental illness. That can also be prevented.