This year seems a particularly violent one.  We seem to be ahead of our usual pace of killing each other by the millions.  There is no doubt that human beings killing each other has been our favorite sport here on earth for at least the last few thousand years or more. My memory fades the further back I go. Why this year alone, we have wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, revolts in Sri Lanka and Tibet, violence in Iran, Israel, Sudan, Congo and Indonesia to name just a few.

Among the billions of our fellows who have died premature deaths from war, disease, or famine, three things stand out for me:

1  The most enormous act of genocide in human history was the eradication of the native populations of the Americas.  Over 100 million people are believed to have died.

2  Will Durant in his "The Story of Civilization”: Our Oriental Heritage" describes the Muslim conquest and occupation of India as probably the bloodiest event in all of human history.

3  Here's a quote by Winston Churchill, no stranger to war on any continent:  "Little did we guess that what has been called the century of the common man (20th Century) would witness as its outstanding feature more common men killing each other with greater facilities than any other five centuries together in the history of the world."

Being particularly fond of statistics, I'm tempted to show some graphs, a few charts, as well as some obscure example of Man’s inhumanity towards his fellow Man.  Maybe talk about some little known atrocities with big death numbers.  Or I could go for the big totals like 120 million killed last century, etc.  But while trying to decide, it hit me.  I mean I served the US Air Force in a Reserve Postal unit where I had full knowledge and control over the coming and going of mail.  That probably should have scared the enemy enough to make them surrender on the spot if only they'd known about me.  Obviously they didn't.  But that aside, the phrase "Man’s inhumanity towards Man" (if you go by the statistics) doesn't make any sense.  Man kills man, a lot, mucho, big time, so why call that inhumanity?  It isn't.  It is what Man does.  So having gotten that gnarly puzzle out of the way, I feel free to take a fresh look at war, disease and famine.

If Man kills man, continues to kill Man, and into the future, will go on killing Man, what if anything should we do about it?  We could decide that we, our group, clan, tribe, or nation should become the very best at killing others so that theoretically, we would win the killing game, or we could decide that it has all been one gigantic mistake and that we should not run around killing each other anymore.  In order to decide which is the best path, it might be good to examine both sides of each question.

First, should we try to win the killing game by becoming the best and most efficient killing country?  

What would be good about doing that?  

What would be bad about doing that?

Second, should we try to stop the killing game for the first time in history and end war and premature death?  

What would be good about doing that?  

What would be bad about doing that?

I was going to sort this out for myself by deciding what would be good about each and what would be bad, but now I've changed my mind and decided to wait and throw this open to the public.  What's your opinion on either question and why?

Geoffrey