73. From Xerxes to Putin: Why are we humans so scientifically advanced yet so incompetent at preventing wars?

Dearly Beloved,

Last week I went for dental treatment and had four nerve canals in one tooth cleaned out. A flexible drill was used which was 0.13mm wide, as thick as a human hair. My dentist explained that originally these nickel-titanium alloy drills broke after being used on only a very few teeth but now, with heat treatment of the alloy, they could be used 10,000 times before breaking. The next day I read that Joint European Torus, which is attempting to produce energy by nuclear fusion, in the way the Sun produces energy -- non-polluting, cheap and with the capacity to produce a mass of energy – had run for five seconds, so promising a major break through in the way we produce energy.

So human technology storms ahead whether in the dentist surgery or the energy industry, yet at the same time we read that the Russian government is amassing troops on the border of Ukraine, probably in preparation for a second invasion. That reminded me of the Persian Xerxes amassing his troops on the Greek border in 480 BC in preparation for the second invasion of Greece.

That raises a key question for humanity: why are we able to make huge strides in scientific understanding and technological development, but absolutely none in managing our human relationships? How can we avoid the destruction of one another in a high tech war?

Why are we incapable of managing group interactions so that we avoid wars? We humans can be very antagonistic to one another but we can usually deal with this in day to day life. Young people may find this difficult at first but as they mature they learn how to live with others. We can certainly rub along in small groups, the greatest problem I see in Cambridge is people trying to cope with car parking problems as some people claim the space outside their houses without any legal right to do so.

Perhaps the problem is that whilst we can manage well in small groups, aggressive interactions between very large groups are now common but we lack the basic skills to deal with them. Perhaps ultra-dominant humans that lead large groups have the greatest difficulty of all human beings, varied as we are, in co-operating with others to avoid conflict. They have, after all, fought to take their position in society and may have few other skills, so they find cooperation difficult. Instead posturing and aggressive display take over. We humans often seem to admire such behaviour and tend to support such personalities often to our detriment.

Gorillas beat their chests in dominance interactions but we humans have taken such displays to new levels. Putin announced a nuclear missile exercise close to Ukraine a week ago. In response, today (10/02/22) four Boeing B52H Stratofortresses (notorious bombers in Vietnam and Iraq and now part of the USA/ NATOs nuclear force), were openly shown on the website Flightradar24 as they crossed the Atlantic from the USA to the UK. Their flight call signs were Hate 11, Hate 12, Hate13 and Hate 14.

Christian belief and theology brilliantly inverts the whole human psychological structure, the dominant, the King, our Lord, is humiliated and crucified but by that very act triumphs and exemplifies the possibilities of a new way of life for all of us which helps us escape from our innate aggression. Surely that inversion may have helped the survival of Christian civilisation by showing that there are other ways of interacting with our fellow humans than by endless declarations of war between large groups?

Peace and Grace to you all,

Paul.

Completed 11 February 2022.

Wikipedia Commons.

We humans even project our  fantasies of war and destruction onto the divine. The Casting of the Rebel Angels into Hell, William Blake 1808. 

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