A concept often examined in the modern industrial world, in the parables of religious narrative the world over. The trickster, the deceiver, the destroyer; a being who by it's very motivation must seek to conquer all and bring it down in a spectacular act of malicious purposelessness. "This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one's will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god." Maybe we ought to let it all just burn.
As an addendum; violence and war restricts itself not only to humanity. The animal kingdom and perhaps the cosmos itself participates.
perhaps... cormac, eh? your saying that just reminds me of a science story i read about two large systems on a collision course with one another...not saying they are warring of course, but it just brought it to mind.
p.s. i am not a big pusher of relativeism, but wouldn't 'pointlessness' depend on the point of view one is looking from? meaning, perhaps they do not understand the being's mission or why, so it only seems pointless to them...or is there some greater knowledge that leads them to believe it is pointless and just for fun...?... perhaps he/she/it is just misunderstood... could he know more than they one some point?(not defending him, just trying to gather more info from your pov...
It took some time to get some response; of course they tend to be the most interesting. I got soft spot for his prose. I enjoy the way we works intentionality even into his punctuation and grammatical style. It might be a stretch of artistic license to suggest the planets and the galaxies themselves are in an ongoing conflict - but I suppose the point is to reconsider what it means for humanity to conflict. Using a positivist approach, the collision of two astronomical bodies may seem like a direct result of the laws of physics and great spans of time. It lacks intentionality, but it still remains a powerful force for deconstructing and rearranging the physical existence of matter. Perhaps there is less intentionality in human conflict than we would like to acknowledge. Perhaps our own conflicts are an inevitable result of physical laws and great spans of time as well. Our wills and our passions collide because they are animate things, just as those planetary systems are, attempting to express their influence throughout space and time -- when they meet resistance, the most frequent result is devastating collision. Just a thought - I wouldn't suggest this is true, or even a productive way to look at the world. I think it's well worth consideration, though. You're definitely right. I guess it depends what deity we speak of, and the associated explanations. There seems to be a great deal of variations in the purposive rationale; some offer balance through destruction, or rebirth and regrowth, others simply to challenge existence itself. Without adding any personal details; I often find violence to be purposelessness. But I greatly appreciate the tactic implication in your question is that violence can be very purposive to some. That's exactly what I'm trying to question in myself, and in others. It's a difficult concept, and your point makes me question if it's even possible to frame conflict and violence away from our relative positions. Many would agree with you. I don't think I do, though. What I take away from it, is that this may be an indispensable part of human identity. Starting over might only mean we begin the cycle again. I cannot reasonable extend this perspective to policy implication.... but what I am willing to say, is that we do ourselves a serious disservice and fundamentally limit our understanding of ourselves if we completely reject and ignore violence and conflict. We skew our identities and substitute it for a fairy-tale narrative. That all makes it quite interesting that so few of the section regulars have acknowledged this threat
[quote name='"Sam_Spade"']It took some time to get some response; of course they tend to be the most interesting. I got soft spot for his prose. I enjoy the way we works intentionality even into his punctuation and grammatical style. It might be a stretch of artistic license to suggest the planets and the galaxies themselves are in an ongoing conflict - but I suppose the point is to reconsider what it means for humanity to conflict. Using a positivist approach, the collision of two astronomical bodies may seem like a direct result of the laws of physics and great spans of time. It lacks intentionality, but it still remains a powerful force for deconstructing and rearranging the physical existence of matter. Perhaps there is less intentionality in human conflict than we would like to acknowledge. Perhaps our own conflicts are an inevitable result of physical laws and great spans of time as well. Our wills and our passions collide because they are animate things, just as those planetary systems are, attempting to express their influence throughout space and time -- when they meet resistance, the most frequent result is devastating collision. Just a thought - I wouldn't suggest this is true, or even a productive way to look at the world. I think it's well worth consideration, though. You're definitely right. I guess it depends what deity we speak of, and the associated explanations. There seems to be a great deal of variations in the purposive rationale; some offer balance through destruction, or rebirth and regrowth, others simply to challenge existence itself. Without adding any personal details; I often find violence to be purposelessness. But I greatly appreciate the tactic implication in your question is that violence can be very purposive to some. That's exactly what I'm trying to question in myself, and in others. It's a difficult concept, and your point makes me question if it's even possible to frame conflict and violence away from our relative positions. Many would agree with you. I don't think I do, though. What I take away from it, is that this may be an indispensable part of human identity. Starting over might only mean we begin the cycle again. I cannot reasonable extend this perspective to policy implication.... but what I am willing to say, is that we do ourselves a serious disservice and fundamentally limit our understanding of ourselves if we completely reject and ignore violence and conflict. We skew our identities and substitute it for a fairy-tale narrative. That all makes it quite interesting that so few of the section regulars have acknowledged this threat [/quote] We are all sadists, masochists, loving and caring. It's all part if the self. To deny one is to deny the self as a whole.. The last paragraph reminded me of this.
I feel as if violence in itself is perhaps purposeless, but it's always caused by a purpose. It's always reacting to something, an idea, a force, whatever. War and destruction always has a motive if you dig deeply enough. Violence without a driving purpose is an interesting concept. How would it manifest? Or why? It would have to have a purpose, unless it was just for the sake of being. Interesting..
Pity the warrior who has slewn every last one of his foes. But an even greater pity is in accordance for the warrior whom evaded death until the very last star became extinguished.
Wow, that is an excellent quote. Leave it to the Klingons. But really, this is a reflection of many warrior cults that have existed in many times and many places in human history.
Im in! Been ready long time now to tear it all down... Up in flames? I got a match.... I will come back to this when i have the time for a real responses
"There is no true love save in suffering, and in this world we have to choose either love, which is suffering, or happiness. Man is the more man - that is, the more divine - the greater his capacity for suffering, or rather, for anguish."
The very fundamental premise of this universe is based upon coercion. Sub-atomically particles collide and storm, is it any wonder we do the same at a macro level?
Great flashes of brilliant energy as particles collide and annihilate, equalizing and invalidating one another simultaneously. Each moment of violent destruction is a rebirth in that world. In an endless cycle, the barbarians are just as important as the saints. This quote is from the same text as the quote from the original thread post: The way of the world is to bloom and to flower and die but in the affairs of men there is no waning and the noon of his expression signals the onset of night. His spirit is exhausted at the peak of its achievement. His meridian is at once his darkening and the evening of his day. He loves games? Let him play for stakes. This you see here, these ruins wondered at by tribes of savages, do you not think that this will be again? Aye. And again. With other people, with other sons.
we must destroy one another .... it is our nature it is our salvation without it we would have overpopulated this world a hundred times over by now... the herd must be culled.... the week must fall... our system has removed natural selection from our breading process... now the week ride on the backs of the strong and are rewarded for breading... we need a great catastrophic event! we need a great plague... a world war climate shift...great flood....asteroid....whatfuckingever!!!! we need to hack our way thru the powers that iopress our lives....and scream aloud to the sky covered in the blood of our vanquished foes!!!!! the small man dreams of standing on a mountain of bodies made of those at the top those at the top already stand on the backs of the masses... fuck these modern wars and the bravery of being out of range let them tear one another to pieces on the battle ground see what kind of man you are when you are dripping with the blood of you friends and your foes alike... see who is solder...who is warrior...when you must look the man in his eyes as you extinguish his life the cosmic chaos drives us we are born of it conceived in violence raised taught fed it as much as the capacity for peace is dreamed of... the capacity for carnage has long been realized... death and rebirth long repeating cycles mimicking the seasons [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRg1fWGk8f0]GWAR - Let Us Slay ( + LYRICS!!) - YouTube[/ame]
This is for you, Dingus. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hxw8QqSIvs]Aus Rotten - Modern Day Witch Hunt - YouTube[/ame]