War as human nature: Forum debate splits over origins

Is war an essential part of human nature?

The question is not new, but each generation reformulates it with urgency. An academic analysis argues that war stems from normal psychological reactions in individuals and groups; another view, from the opposing side, notes that animal species avoid lethal confrontations as a conservation mechanism. Between these extremes, one participant offers data suggesting organized war is less than 10,000 years old, while humanity has existed for over 30,000 years without archaeological traces of weapons or warrior status in European sites.

The instinct that does not kill

The most repeated objection against war determinism is physiological. If we are programmed to kill, why does a man in a life-or-death fight rarely attack his opponent's genitals? That gesture, which would be lethal and decisive, does not appear. One participant explains there is a biological brake: species avoid confrontations that could end in death for any individual. It is a conservation mechanism, not a destructive one.

According to this same participant, any mentally healthy person is terrified by the idea of killing someone, let alone thousands or millions. However, history shows the opposite with a frequency that disproves any anthropological optimism. The contradiction remains unresolved.

Chimpanzees also wage war

Ethology complicates the pacifist narrative. Wild chimpanzee clans practice limited warfare. Humans, however, have romanticized, glorified, and turned war into a necessity during entire periods, argues one participant. In the Middle Ages, when a kingdom was not at war, it prepared for the next. In Celtic, Iberian, Germanic, or Viking societies, dying of old age in bed was undesirable; the desired death was on the battlefield, according to that intervention.

Comparison with bonobos, peaceful by nature, places humans halfway between both species, according to another participant. The problem is that this "middle ground" has produced Hiroshima, the Gulag, and two world wars in a single century.

The State invented modern war

One school of thought defends that war, as we understand it, is a state phenomenon. Pre-state struggles were often ritualistic. War presupposes armies, strategies, supplies, and medical services. Without those ingredients, they are brawls or battles, not wars. Clausewitz’s classic quote—war is the continuation of politics by other means—is enthusiastically incorporated here.

The counterargument is that war exists since before States. A caveman fighting neighbors was already war. The academic definition covers both meanings: armed struggle between countries or groups, and confrontation between people or groups. Therefore, the discussion is semantic rather than anthropological.

The rich do not go to the front

Economic analysis of conflict introduces a variable rarely seen in military history manuals. Animals enjoy the results of their aggressive effort. Humans do not, argues one participant. In Ukraine, according to his intervention, half a million people have lost their lives in the mud. Survivors will not gain much either, regardless of how the war ends. Meanwhile, the political elite managing it remains safe in its stronghold.

The conclusion drawn is bitter: man is the species that distributes spoils most unequally relative to member effort, according to that participant. War not only kills; it also enriches those who do not shoot.

Why do the worst govern?

If healthy people do not want to kill, how do psychopaths reach power? The answer offered is unsettling: psychopaths lie perfectly, have extrasensory-like perception to understand emotions they do not feel, and manipulate those who do. It is not that people choose the worst; it is that the worst are the only ones capable of organizing a campaign to be elected.

Normal people, meanwhile, are incapable of organizing beyond small groups, according to another participant. If we were bellicose by nature, we would have kicked governments out of their offices decades ago. We have not done so. That is also a fact.

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The question remains open. Archaeologists find no weapons in European Neolithic sites, yet chimpanzees tear apart their neighbors. Modern states build hydrogen bombs, but a man in a street fight does not attack his rival's genitals. Are we violent by nature, or just enough to obey whoever organizes violence for us?