Killing

Why is it that human beings like killing other human beings so much? Other species don't do this sort of thing to each other. Why do we?

Other species kill species other than their own for food; humans are no different in that regard. We kill huge numbers of fish and other animals. The only difference is that it is all industrialized, sanitized --- no blood on human fangs. Oh, there is one other difference --- waste. Humans waste enormous amounts of what they kill for food. In the natural environment, there is little waste. Whatever predators leave is picked on by smaller kritters. Almost nothing remains at the end of the chain.

Yet we take enormous pride in who we are and tell ourselves (and anyone else listening) that we are superior to the animals --- actually we don't think we're animals at all, but divinely created species of a different kind. How ridiculous.

Consider the Second World War. In that regard, consider thousands of men dying on beaches along the French coast or on Pacific Islands --- thousands in just a single day of mayhem. Can you imagine horses waging war of that kind against other horses? Lions vs other lions?

Actually, the history of humans killing humans goes way back farther than writing. It doesn't seem to have diminished; it has simply gotten more efficient. Technology has blossomed with the fruits of massive destruction. At Hiroshima we proved that we can kill thousands of people with just one instrument, and we have spent the intervening time developing more destructive weapons and better delivery systems. If we got together and synchronized attacks, we could actually blow up the world and destroy the human race entirely. I suspect that we will do that one day but we still seem to be a few years distant from that last example of human insanity. 

I'm not sure that 'like' is the correct word, but how else should we say it. If we don't like it why do we do it? Let's face it. If we really do not like doing it, wouldn't we do something about it? We claim to be the most intelligent beings on the planet, but this may demonstrate that "intelligence" isn't really a survival trait.

I'd like to hear what other people think about this.