Sobering Statistics

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I had no idea of the sheer scale of Conflicts... scary s**t indeed!!

The usual video type thing..but bear with it to the end

 

 

My god!..Haven't we just moved on as a species huh?

Edited October 24, 2009 by UK_Widowmaker

[Olham 164]

Well, we in the so called "western world" have developed, I believe.

We have created democracies, with a such lot of available information and freedom of speech.

(Elsewhere in the world, they still die for that.)

And I do believe, that this incredible number of young men have not died in vain.

Their countless deaths planted so many crosses and carved so many and deep marks

into our common sense, that no one can say anymore, he couldn't have imagined all this.

You don't need no phantasy. No imagination.

You just read the reports, look at the pictures, and walk over endless cemetries...

[Bullethead 12]

I had no idea of the sheer scale of Conflicts... scary s**t indeed!!

...

My god!..Haven't we just moved on as a species huh?

 

Actually, the vid's claim of 250,000,000 dead in wars in the last 100 years is a mark of progress. Conservatively estimated, 7,000,000,000 people lived during that time, so at most only 1 person in 28 died in wars in the last 100 years, or only 3.6% of the human population.

 

Compare this with the current estimate of 1 person in every 3 or 4 dead in wars back before there was much in the way of civilization. You might want to read War Before Civilization, or Prehistoric Warfare in the American Southwest. There was never any such thing as a "peaceful savage". And when you consider that something like 80-90% of all the people who have ever lived are still alive today, the extreme casualty rates (over the then-average lifespan) was a lot more devastating to the total human population than what happens now.

 

Face it. Humans are THE top predator that has ever evolved on this ecosystem. We're animals like all the others, and our ancestors spent a couple million years clubbing, stabbing, burning, and shooting their way to the top of the foodchain against the toughest competition Mother Nature could provide.

 

That heritage doesn't just go away now that we've got roofs over our heads. 5000 years can't stand up to 2 million years, so civilization is just a thin layer of paint on the most ravenous beast Mother Nature ever spawned, and if you put any decent person in a bad enough situation, that beast will come out fangs first.

 

Civilization is, however, something of a mixed blessing. While it has reduced the overall casualty rate, and even the frequency of wars, it has also created new, unnatural reasons to fight (such as religion). In addition, it has allowed for larger populations backed up by higher technology and industrial capacity, so that when wars do happen, they kill huge numbers of people. But the population has grown more than the wars have (so far...) so the net trend is fewer people now die in wars, or even serve in the military.

 

Just look back 1 or 2 generations, depending on how young you are. EVERYBODY in my father's generation was a WW2 vet. They all either volunteered or got drafted, and they thought it no big deal to be drinking buddies with folks who were in famous battles, because it was practically ubiquitous. When I subbed for one of my father's poker buddies, I sat at a table with vets from North Africa, Guadalcanal, Okinawa, Normandy, the Bulge, and Market Garden. One of the house rules was that you couldn't play unless you'd killed 20 men.

 

But looking around this forum today, folks who served in the military even in peacetime seem to be the minority, and those who've seen the elephant are an even lower number. So take that as a sign of progress

[Pappy55 1]

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Yeah, I agree with what you say BH...just that Governments around the world (and indeed the media) seem to like to keep things Hushed up!...I never knew that there are 15 wars going on in the world as we speak

[Bullethead 12]

I never knew that there are 15 wars going on in the world as we speak

 

Really? I'm surprised it's only 15. It's usually more.

 

There is really no such thing as peace. It's just the name we give to the brief, anomalous intervals when there is no war involving us, no matter what horrors are happening to others elsewhere. But all such isolated periods of peace are fleeting because the reasons to fight never go away, and even if they take a siesta now and then there are always the extra reasons that civilization has invented.

 

100 years ago, most folks recognized this, and also that losing wars really sucks. Hence, the study of and preparation for war was regarded as not only normal but essential to the maintenance of civilization. However, after WW1 and WW2, this came to be regarded as "militarism" and was seen as the cause of these terrible conflicts. Thus, "enlightened" people blamed this "militarism" for causing the wars and all things military fell out of favor with the masses and their elected representatives. And thus the reason civilization is on a downswing and you didn't know there were 15 wars, give or take a few, going on right now.