Motorcycle Travel Series by @velimir 'Zagorje' (Part #181)
Weapons... Hot, cold, mass scale, concealed, biological, chemical, nuclear... Please add an adjective I've forgotten. No other species on the face of the Earth invested so much time, energy, resources, effort and skill into killing their own. Sometimes, it feels as if we are racing as to which group of people will kill more members of another in the shortest amount of time. Being born within confinements of an imaginative 'state', being of a certain race, having a different religion, creed or social status, are only some of the reasons for this insanity continuing through generations.
But, what is really insane is that all of the greatest world's inventions were by-products of war industry. Cell phones and Internet are only the two more recent ones which you use daily. It wasn't much different throughout human history... Feel free to investigate deeper for yourself if you cannot believe it. Weapons industry is a major economy drive with trillions of dollars invested each year. What a shame...
A huge shame of human race. A testament to how deeply primitive we are. I am not sure if anything can be done about that but I don't think that the solution lies in legalization or prohibition. It's more about changing human mindset than anything else.
On the other hand, how to beat a sane argument that it is absolutely OK to shoot a guy who is just about to, or has just killed 10 or more ordinary people and children out of a blue in a mall for whatever were his retarded soulless reasons?
One cannot.
The urge to possess and use weapons springs from the early days of hunters and gatherers when a well-made weapon could make a difference between surviving or dying out. The times are different now, but the instinct survived... We can argue that it is the same principle nowadays but on a much grander scale.
I see no solution, apart from the massive change in collective consciousness, which is slow and dragging but nonetheless approaching. Maybe its time for all of us to realize that killing one another in the name of country, race, religion, money or whatever else is not why are we here for.
We are here to care and help each other. If one is not able to help or at least understand another person, the last thing he should do is hurt him/her.
Enjoy your day! :)
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Great intelligence here @velimir. Exceptional post. I learnt a lot from here. You made really huge points i must say. I agree with you that the greatest world's inventions were by-products of war industry. We should thank Harry Brearley for steel which doesn't rust or corrode.
He had discovered the secret of stainless steel. In WW1 it was used in some of the new-fangled aero-engines - but it really came into its own as knives and forks and spoons and the innumerable medical instruments on which hospitals depend and thats what we use today.
The gun we have today was used to improve on gaming for hunters. Most hunters agree that it is easy to kill a large animal because of the enormous force provided by a handgun compared to when they use other weapons. Hunters do not need to run around chasing their game but only need to shoot from a distance.
Weapons also had its importance back then especially nuclear ones. Negotiation becomes the first weapon of choice. This nuclear weapond made other nations to think twice before launching an attack on a nuclear-armed country. So when there are conflicts that need to be resolved, both nations would first resort to negotiating to reach an agreement or compromise as a way to avoid massive destruction. This should be the mindset of people having weapons. Not as a source of destruction, but to make sure it gives room for dialogue and it had been working till date. We are all one irrespective of race, tribe or religion. Thank you for the educative and brilliant post. Looking forward to more.
I understand how it is. The balance of insanity threatening the whole species. But, see the point is that it would be way better to negotiate without a finger on a trigger. That trigger might one day happen to be under a very shaky or mentally unstable finger... I'd prefer a world free of weapons. But that's only my lunacy... cheers!
Haha. I get your point @velimir.
A world without weapons would be a world without humans.
A large part of how humans evolved from an ancestor perhaps somewhat like some of the modern apes is because we started to use weapons, thought up by our larger brains.
These weapons, likely started out by throwing rocks instead of faeces as chimps do. When it was seen that rocks worked better than faeces, an arms race started that would have involved big sticks and bones. With that the proto-humans could have fought off larger predators instead of just running and climbing and hoping none of them got caught.
All the rest of the discoveries and inventions would have followed after that because having weapons meant that less time would have been needed for guarding the group and running, more time would have been available for eating.
Weapons also provided meat which is higher in protein than vegetable matter. That in turn allowed for more brain development and more evolution towards modern man.
Without weapons, none of it would have been possible.
The problem now is that those weapons are used not just for defending and hunting, but also for war and murder.
I really understand how you see it. You made very remarkable points.
The first time humans came up with weapons were for hunting animals, not for killing each other or raiding and pillaging but for hunting. So it would be impossible to see a world without weapons.
Even if we found another alternative to hunting with weapons we would still invent weapons because some lustfull jealous guy is going to attack someones family and they need to protect themselves. So it is entirely impossible not to have weapons. I mean we turned our body, rocks, tree branches, plants and even water into a weapon, (drowning someone or something for those who are wondering).
Great one @velimir. I really like your view point. Only if the majority of the world could see this.
Many weapons have other uses, so unclear if those things wouldn’t exist. For instance, driving a truck into a crowd is using the truck as a weapon, so would your world have trucks? Would it have stones? Knives? Dynamite has significant civil uses.
But to your question. The police would have no weapons. No guns, no batons. To apprehend people, the police would have to be faster, bigger and stronger than the assailant. They’d have to corner an assailant, because without being able to threaten to shoot, the assailant would run away. The assailants would not have guns, but there’s still likely be a lot more crime. Prison escapes would be more common, or prisons would have to be a lot more locked down. No risk of being shot if you climb the fence.
It’d be much harder to protect the President because without weapons, if people for instance swarmed the President on stage, it could get very messy very quickly as the Presidential protectors would need to literally engage in fisticuffs with the attackers.
Theft would likely be more common, particularly by larger groups of people who would ransack a place and run.
War is where things get somewhat murky with your question, because it’s unclear exactly what weapons would no longer exist. Would blockades be more common (and literally blockades, where ships would probably ram each other?). Invading bands of people might simply create fires everywhere.
As I said guys... Without a change in collective mindset, we are where we are. And will stay there for quite a while :D
we try to survive at all cost and surviving is the biggest incentive to innovation, sadly we are trying to survive againest our own species instead of thinking how to conquer other galaxies. nice photos of ancient weapons
true that, my friend...!
Unfortunately, with our current way of thinking, war is a part of life on Earth. It sucks and will take something incredible to change it all.
yes, agreed!
I'm agree with you ...but these weapons are also important to keep us safe .....because killing our rivalry is kind of behavior or psychology which is present in every living being..
I prefer to call that kind of behaviour a rudimentary primitive reflex based on impulses. Safe from whom? Ourselves? See how primitive that is? Not even animals mass kill their own... :D
We are here to care and help each other.
But at the same time, "we need two hands to clap".
What I mean to say is that to achieve peace we need approval of both the parties. And not just one of them.
The biggest example of this I can give is China and Tibet.
Tibet always believed in peace , hence they dint build good defence and was hoping Thier neighbour China would believe in the same principle, but china believed in conquering , hence they had the best of weapons.
This difference in mindset led to China's invasion in Tibet and the native tibetians couldnt do anything as they dint have the needed weapons.
As a Result, Dalai Lama and some of the native had to flee to India ,while rest who stayed back in Tibet(currently under china) is either killed or slaves.
Doesn't that example prove my point? And also adds a bit of world leaders' hypocrisy lol
My Basic point is Peace can only be achieved when Greed, Anger, Disappointment, Sorrow can be overcomed. This state can only be achieved when we realise who we really are,that is not the Materialistic body we generally associat ourselves with,but the soul within. The moment we accept the concept of soul, we then know soul within German is no different from a soul of an Englishman, hence there will be no distinction and peace will be established. Such were the Teachings of ISKCON Guru Prabhupada.
But Our Hypocritical Politicians will never understand this concept, Hence seems like distant dream between countries.
https://steemit.com/spirituality/@backpackingmonk/about-hare-krishna-the-documentary#comments
Do give a watch to the trailer.
Hello. It is great. Thanks for your sharing.
You have a good insight @velimir. I think it's our tribal nature that is at least in part responsible. "motorcycle travel series" What are you riding? My ride is a '95 Moto Guzzi California 1100. A plan for another ride through Europe in 2018 is in the making.
VN 900 is my drug of choice! :)
Really your photography is wonderful, you always share different kinds of photography in us
The amount of money you find in the weapon- and pharmacy/drug-industri is plain out crazy...
wow very nice post.
thanks for @velimir