On the Necessity of War

Philosopher Alan Watts once wrote, "the friendly enemy (is) the necessary adversary who is part of life" (Watts, A., 1966). Watts advised that a smart ruler would choose their enemies wisely. Because of the necessity of an adversary, what is optimal is a weak, stable, long-term enemy. We depend on enemies and outsiders to define ourselves and unite our community.

Because humans have evolved in the context of their social groups, humans may have inherited an "Us vs. Them" mentality that is locked in the structure of our brains. My theory is that over the course of human evolution, there was a survival advantage for those who were vigilant warriors; venturing out to find and vanquish hiding invaders, coordinating the strongest for raids, and trying to return victorious. For thousands of years these in-group/out-group violent social patterns were likely to grant a survival advantage over more laid-back early humans.

The "good-us/evil-them" mentality was etched into our brain structure and is still determining our thinking patterns today. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam (2007) found that the greater the diversity in a community, the less trust they feel towards their neighbors. We are left with the legacy of the paradigm for hatred towards outsiders.