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Originally Posted by TheSquealer
Thats not true at all. Each group in this sense is most often a threat to the survival of the other. Particularly when one has more than the other, one has an advantage the other does not have (shelter, food stores, weapons, better land etc), which impacts the survival chances of each. Nationalism, racism, religion and so on and so on, bring people together, strengthen their bonds, strengthen the tribe when united behind ideologies and beliefs and improve their ability to survive and reproduce.
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That's a myth though, strengthening their bonds through these collectives does not improve their ability to survive and reproduce. Tell that to the 600 million dead in the last hundred years. Tell that to every victim of a race related crime, or the millions dead on behalf of religious wars.
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Originally Posted by TheSquealer
People with no cause and no sense of purpose or higher purpose are horrible fighters... and horrible defenders and make for a weak fighting force.
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I agree and so did Prussia when their soldiers were fleeing the battlefield for self-preservation. That's why they introduced the idea of School and the US adopted it, as it was an amazingly effective tool for propagandizing a population:
Nationalism is certainly learned and not embedded in our genetic code.
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Originally Posted by TheSquealer
You are making observations and judgement in the year 2013 and discounting 10,000,000 years of evolution and survival that got us to this point.
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I'm not discounting anything, I'm doing the opposite. I'm looking at the past and see that it could be greatly improved even in the here and now. Collectivism is the core issue that we must move past, just as we did with the concept of direct human ownership, which has now been eradicated largely through every major society. It's possible (and a necessity) this happens with nationalism, religion, etc.. but I won't be holding my breath waiting for it to happen.