“Since the US was founded in 1776, it has been at war for 214 out of the 235 years of its existence — on various fronts for the past six decades. During that time, in spite of its inability to actually win any conflict it started, the US has built up an arsenal of conventional and nuclear weapons larger than any other country, spends more on its armed forces than China, Russia, France, and England combined, and maintains nearly 800 military bases in over 70 countries and territories abroad.” ~retrieved from April 28, 2025 The Hames Report – Limited Edition. Research, substack.com
Before we can address the subtle forms of human violence and harmful behavior in our relationships and politics, seems reasonable to first look at our attitudes about the most obvious physical human violence: WAR.
In dictionaries, war is defined as armed hostile conflict between nations.
So war is human intention to kill other humans…for a rational reasons and justifications.
Usually the rational reason is justification using either defensive strategy (under attack so defending my self/family/country is justified), or an offensive proactive preemptive strategy (they are about to attack me, and will attack me, so I will attack them first).
- How can human health flourish in a country that values and justifies human war?
It doesn’t…the United States spends more on health care than most nations, but health continues to decline.
https://www.who.int/data/gho/publications/world-health-statistics
https://ourworldindata.org/health-meta
Statistics on physical, mental, emotional health (anxiety, anger, depression) show declines over time.
https://www.healthdata.org/research-analysis/health-by-location/united-states
2. How can we address subtler forms of violence/harm/war (gender, race, religion, culture, etc) if we cannot recognize the problem with justifying and engaging in physical violent wars?
seems to me we are lying to ourselves about the morals, ethics, and values we are living from.
3. The solution is not to move to another country, or hide from the wars.
Seems like first step is to become aware of the painful truths of what our ancestors created, and we stepped into, and now we carry forward.
We need to face it with honesty and courage, not blame and attack others/self, nor deny, avoid, pretend any longer.
As Edwin Starr sang in 1969: War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again!
Probably the only thing for sure we know is that human war creates more war.
Humans using violence to stop violence seems stupid, absurd, insane, deaf/dumb/blind because: “eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind” as Gandhi predicted.
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