Wars, The Causes May Conflict With Its Reason

“ Grandpa, there still are those who claim that slavery was the cause of the Civil war in spite of our arguments against the idea. How do we respond to these people?"


Grandpa just patted my head and said;

“Boy, the best response to these people is just by giving them a nod of your head with a smile upon your face. We are not here to convince anyone to our way of thinking. Leave that to others. Remember, we are only presenting our arguments so that others may have the opportunity to delve into their own thoughts and ideas about any issue we address.

There are persons that can be convinced by arguments presented but there are those who will only be convinced by their own experiences or by force. It is also been my experience that people who are primarily motivated by their feelings about a certain issue will not be convinced anyways. There seems to be an innate supposition that to do so will result in the need to change their feelings of morality about the issue in order to accept another viewpoint. This would be especially true on issues like slavery.

Another big reason for the unwillingness to accept a different viewpoint on issues is the misleading aspect of the meaning of cause and effect which is the defining principle of the concept of Determinism. They will always try to present a outside source as the cause of action instead of looking for the reasoning of the person actually committing the act. Psychology describes these persons as outer motivated persons.

Wars, by definition, are acts of aggression. And there are always at least two sides to every war. Every war has an aggressor and every war has a defender. With this both sides will have different reasons for fighting in that war. But we must also accept that only one side of that war is fighting in order to impose its will on the other side by the use of force. Once we have determined the side attempting to impose its will on the other side then we have the cause of war. We can then righteously claim that the other side is fighting to prevent this imposition of the other side's will. This is the essence of the meaning of self-defense. And this can be applied to any act of self-defense whether on an individual level or on a collective level.

The biggest problem when dealing with any conflict is that both sides will try to place the blame for the conflict on the other side. And with wars it is the winners that determine where blame lies for recorded history. And winners will always portray themselves as the righteous side of the conflict. History bears this out. When the one side that was the aggressor in the war is the winner they will always portray the other side as defending acts of immorality thus taking the focus off of the fact that they were the ones imposing their will on the other side. When the side that was the defenders is the winner of a war they will always portray themselves as defending their right of self-determination.

So, boy, don't worry about whether or not you can convince someone. Seek to understand why others that differ with you believe that they are righteous in their thoughts and ideas. When you do that you will be more informed about the issues of life. When you do that you will be far more inclined to ask questions then think that you have the answers to the issues.”

I could only scratch my head and say, “yes, grandpa.”