Fighting!

Briliant, isn't it? Nothing like a good fight.
But when did we realise that brutal violence was a better way to settle disputes than reasoned discussion?
History would perhaps suggest it was a fairly recent development. It has been suggested by some learned people that the Neanderthals died out because they lacked the power of speech, whereas we homosapiens survived because we had, in the words of every tedious job advertisement, excellent communication skills. So they were victims of natural selection because they they could only grunt or hit someone with a stick, while we developed the ability to say, " Could you pass me the salt?"
They had bigger brains than us, apparently.
Did we ever fight with the Neanderthals? Did we ever inter-breed with them? Nobody knows, but sometimes when I walk through Rathcoole, I suspect that we might have.
But back to the fighting. We are animals. The power of speech is not strong enough to make that go away.
Why do we fight?
Because we like it.
Go into any video shop and you will see they have a whole section dedicated to war movies. And most of the other movies will involve some sort of violence. And we respect violent people. They are strong, where people who are not good at being violent are seen as weak. Apart from maybe Gandi and Jesus.
Look at the world we live in. The highest honour a man can get is the Victoria Cross. You pretty much have to be in a war to get that little badge. And you have to be in it pretty deep. Single-handedly taking out machine gun nests and that sort of thing.
I recently single handedly painted a nice mural on a previously ugly tunnel under a motorway.
Now I don't expect the Victoria Cross for that. Maybe if I had been under constant sniper fire while I was doing it. But I wasn't.
The thing is, people don't have to be under threat of death to be heroes. Look at my Dad. His generation were thankfully spared a major war, but he brought up three balanced and successful children and me, while working tirelessly and imaginatively in a job he was brilliant at, without ever starting a fight with anyone.
Mind you, I did see Dad almost get in a fight once.
He was playing football at the time, and this big guy tried to start a fight with him. Dad gave as good has he got, and the big guy backed off.
Maybe it's okay to be a bit violent if you're provoked.