NationStates Jolt Archive

It has occured to me that most conflict in the world can be ascribed to basic emotions. For example, the cold war seemed to be between greed ( The West ) and fear ( primarily the USSR ) ... greed won. In the current conflict between the West and Islam, it seems to be between greed ( again ) and rage. I wonder what would happen if we had a conflict between any of the other emotions and love?

Your thoughts?

Only if love fought a long drawn out guerilla style war and slowly infiltrated the enemy from within. Love is slower and less sure of direction and less able to distinguish between enemies and friends than say hate or lust or laughter or sorrow. Love is insidious however. Just when you think youve got love cornered or killed it returns swiftly and with a vengeance.

I like to see a war between Ennui and Angst.

Love can very quickly turn to hatred and rage. It is the most schizophrenic of emotions. Or maybe I just date the wrong women.

I'd like to see Affection and Disgust have a fight.

I'd like to see Affection and Disgust have a fight.

I'll give you my ex-girlfriend's phone number.

Only if love fought a long drawn out guerilla style war and slowly infiltrated the enemy from within. Love is slower and less sure of direction and less able to distinguish between enemies and friends than say hate or lust or laughter or sorrow. Love is insidious however. Just when you think youve got love cornered or killed it returns swiftly and with a vengeance.
Did that come from a poem?

I'll give you my ex-girlfriend's phone number.

lol, I was going to make a similar comment. :p

Only if love fought a long drawn out guerilla style war and slowly infiltrated the enemy from within. Love is slower and less sure of direction and less able to distinguish between enemies and friends than say hate or lust or laughter or sorrow. Love is insidious however. Just when you think youve got love cornered or killed it returns swiftly and with a vengeance.
You are wise, Grasshopper. :D

Love can very quickly turn to hatred and rage. It is the most schizophrenic of emotions. Or maybe I just date the wrong women.
Or treat the right women wrong. ;)

It has occured to me that most conflict in the world can be ascribed to basic emotions. For example, the cold war seemed to be between greed ( The West ) and fear ( primarily the USSR ) ... greed won. In the current conflict between the West and Islam, it seems to be between greed ( again ) and rage. I wonder what would happen if we had a conflict between any of the other emotions and love?

Your thoughts?

Love for what? If it's love for the other side, violence is unlikely. I can see defense designed to push back attacks without killing (using rubber-bullets etc).

The thing is, love would be the protesters, Eut. The declaration of "Hey, I don't want to fight you either"

I like to see a war between Ennui and Angst.

Short war. Ennui would be too apathetic and sadly sidetracked to participate and Angst would be so distraught over the spectre of a possible war and aftermath that it would unconditionally surrender before the war could be declared.

Did that come from a poem?

No it fell out of my head and onto my keyboard after reading the OP

Short war. Ennui would be too apathetic and sadly sidetracked to participate and Angst would be so distraught over the spectre of a possible war and aftermath that it would unconditionally surrender before the war could be declared.
Heh! Sounds like this:

The thing is, love would be the protesters, Eut. The declaration of "Hey, I don't want to fight you either"

:D

The institutionalization of greed and conflict is capable of producing just and efficient systems. For what is capitalism by greed institutionalized? What is democracy but conflict institutionalized? The basics of human individualism are what have driven the United States for the past 230 years. Not love, not compassion. Greed and conflict. And that's why the United States has risen as a country. That's why we're wealthy. That's why we're powerful. That's why we're happy. We embrace those things that so many have come to curse, those things we know to be the basis of the individual, and we thrive.

Screw emotion. I wanna see a war between monkeys and badgers.

Conflict will never be stopped. Peace amongst mankind will never be achieved. But violence, that damnable creature that destroys, can be. If we realize that we don't agree, and we will never agree, we can put that conflict in words instead of bombs. On the floors of Senates, Parliaments, Diets, Congresses and Councils around the world, if we can fight with words, we will cease to kill each other. We can harness conflict, we can give it a place, we can make it like fire. The single source, so capable of destruction, but when wielded wisely and masterfully, it is capable of liberating. It drives away cold, it drives away darkness, it drives away fear. It drives engines, it drives chemical reactions, it drives hope for the future. Conflict is like fire, so capable of ill, but so capable of good.

Screw emotion. I wanna see a war between monkeys and badgers.
As do I.

Greed drives the engines of industry. A single person working for their own betterment has every single incentive to improve, to grow their skills and knowledge. You can scrape a living out of the Earth as a subsistence farmer, much as our ancestors did. But they were not happy with just "getting by." They wanted a better life, they worked hard, some created new ideas, new concepts. People specialized, they moved into town. They started their own rudimentary businesses. Burghers, Bourgeousie, Merchants they were. And by their labor they improved their lives. They grew their businesses, as did their families, quality of life improved, not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because of their desire to improve their lives. People in a modern nation live better than any Teutonic King could have imagined. All because they did what they felt was good for themselves. Greed drives growth, greed makes the world better.

Heh! Sounds like this:



:D

What can I say? I'm just the universal pascifist (http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiUNIVPACF;ttUNIVSOLD.html).

It has occured to me that most conflict in the world can be ascribed to basic emotions. For example, the cold war seemed to be between greed ( The West ) and fear ( primarily the USSR ) ... greed won. In the current conflict between the West and Islam, it seems to be between greed ( again ) and rage. I wonder what would happen if we had a conflict between any of the other emotions and love?

Your thoughts?

"Love conquers all." 'Nuff said.

Conflict will never be stopped. Peace amongst mankind will never be achieved. But violence, that damnable creature that destroys, can be. If we realize that we don't agree, and we will never agree, we can put that conflict in words instead of bombs. On the floors of Senates, Parliaments, Diets, Congresses and Councils around the world, if we can fight with words, we will cease to kill each other. We can harness conflict, we can give it a place, we can make it like fire. The single source, so capable of destruction, but when wielded wisely and masterfully, it is capable of liberating. It drives away cold, it drives away darkness, it drives away fear. It drives engines, it drives chemical reactions, it drives hope for the future. Conflict is like fire, so capable of ill, but so capable of good.

Idealism at its best. Don't get me wrong; I really agree with you, and hope that this could be an eventuality. But I don't believe that, given the human protensity toward violence, such peaceful "conflicts of words" will ever come to fruition. How many physical fights were sparked by a heated debate? Passions run high, reason dips low, inhibitions against violence are cast aside in the wake of mindless rage. And even if cooler heads prevail in the actual discussion, then it would only be a matter of attacking through the backdoor. Catching a particular enemy off guard and away from the rational minds that occur with large numbers, and violence will rear its ugly head and destroy all that has been peacefully achieved for peace.

But while the world continues on its violent way, stumbling along, I still hold some hope that we will eventually come to reason that yes, violence solves nothing, it only serves to aggravate the issue and work against peaceful progress. But hope is really all we have.

Can love bloom on the battlefield?

Can love bloom on the battlefield?

You wouldn't happen to write scripts for Hollywood or something, would you? Because that sounds like somethinng that ends a 30 second trailer...

It has occured to me that most conflict in the world can be ascribed to basic emotions. For example, the cold war seemed to be between greed ( The West ) and fear ( primarily the USSR ) ... greed won. In the current conflict between the West and Islam, it seems to be between greed ( again ) and rage. I wonder what would happen if we had a conflict between any of the other emotions and love?

Your thoughts?

Umm...greed is not an emotion. Rage is not a primary emotion, anger is primary. Rage is the accumulation of much anger. I suppose love, but in a very restricted way -- not romantic love, of course. Can love even be in a conflict? I don't get it.

Greed drives growth, greed makes the world better.

Yeah, like a certain Enron CEO. His greed made everyone's life better. Oh wait, it didn't.

Reasonable greed is one thing. Uncontrolled rapaciousness on the other hand, is just destructive.

What would win?
Lust or Confusion.