First published Tuesday, July 18, 2006:
Unlike the desire of Newt Gingrich to refer to the current events of war the world over as the “Third World War”, it would be far more accurate to call it what it really is and in doing so, understand what the enemy really is.
Before human beings; evolution moved forward by passing by, through extinction, those creatures that could not adapt to the changing environment.
Humans changed that equation by adapting the environment to humans. It is why we live in places habitation is unwelcome and in many cases just plain dumb.
Now, as a global communication ability connects differing cultures, that human ‘nature’ of adapting the environment spills into refusing to adapt. Ignorance and fear of advancement breed distrust and disdain for it. A culture controlled by leaders who instill guilt for adherence to their commands breeds a willing crop of victims, each determined to be worthy of inclusion.
The radical terrorism rampant in the world today is without country borders. It is based on a human culture that refuses to adapt to the forward motion of human evolution. It seeks to return the advancements of the human species to the time when the culture seeking such reversal was safe and secure in its ignorance.
We are fighting today for the very survival of the human species. For if the human species does not adapt with the advancement of the creations of humans (the thing that sets us apart from other creatures who perish when they cannot adapt), the evolution of the species will cease and stagnation and infighting will destroy humans.
That is not the view of those who seek to return humans to the time of ignorance. It is not the view of those who demand that science be ignored and belief be paramount. It is not the view of those who seek to reverse time. It is the result of them all.
As we watch a war between an advanced civilization and a barbaric culture we are witnessing the first war of evolution.
Prior to humans such upheavals took place due to environment, to nature. Now, the upheaval is through ‘nurture’ or the lack thereof; the actions of those who seek a return to the time when there was no challenge to belief, a time when there was control over human thought, a time when freedom was unheard of.
The United States and other western nations have sought to spread freedom to the parts of the world where the culture of refusal resides.
Humans will adapt their environment and conquer it rather than succumb to it. Throughout human history there have been those that follow the conquerors and they are the ones who appease and seek counsel with enemies and are the first victims, but never know it until they are.
Human evolution cannot be stopped, save through two things.
It can happen through cowardice of humans to face the very thing that seeks to destroy them or it can happen through the embrace of the culture of refusal by even so much as considering it can be bargained with: both one thing. Humans can commit suicide.
The other thing is a global disaster where humans cannot control it at all. Global warming, if there is such a thing (and that is debatable) is either the result of humans overcoming the environment and we shall overcome that result as well, or it is the result of a global disaster brought about by the sun or the planet’s cycles. Either way, humans will adapt the environment to survive. But when another human seeks to destroy the advancement of humans, only humans can stop it or allow it to happen.
Not at any time in nature’s history has any species survived when it negotiated with its environment. Only humans have learned to conquer or perish. Today the environment for humans is one of terror and death. If we do so much as a single step less than stopping it completely, utterly destroying its very foundations, it will consume all human evolution from the complete 50,000 year human history of having been in control of it. That is far too short a time to allow it to be destroyed so soon.
Make no mistake. We are involved in the first War of Evolution. It may be a third world war, but this war plays upon the sensibilities of one human to another and exploits them to return the entire species to a time when that decision could never be made by a self aware creature.