My Favorite Martian.. talking about Aggression

"Much of the good that man has done, has been undone by the aggression inflicted by him on his own kind. While he has grown in his capacity of understanding and using things around him, he remains persistently blind to his own faults. Starting from the hairy creature, emerging from the cave wielding a club thirty thousand years ago, right up to a modern Yale graduate with a nuclear arsenal at his disposal, his emotional apparatus remains practically the same." These provocative remarks came from the little green man whom I found perched up on top of my bookshelf yesterday. If men from Mars are known for their cold objectivity, this extra terrestrial (ET) lived up to the reputation. He continued: "Although cleverest amongst all the animals inhabiting the planet, why is he the only one who inflicts pain and kills his own species and destroys the environment his life depends upon? Despite being the only creature endowed with consciousness on earth, why is he incapable of introspection and self-correction?"

He went on "The only change I notice, is that the methods and forms of aggression have become more effective and sophisticated as the humankind advanced. Bullet is not the only weapon of aggression any more. You can also control the world by killing with kindness. Give clever development loans to the rulers who surrender their sovereignty to you, and let them embezzle, making their poor subjects to pay back. Save their shaky thrones in return of the resources they sell to you cheap, and allow them to tyrannize their people. Stir up revolts, proxy wars and civil commotion using covert methods, and bring down the leaders who refuse to comply with your agenda. Anybody, who fails to see aggression in the method, will see plenty of it in the results. Millions can be seen dying of hunger, malnutrition and sickness caused by poverty in failing economies. Thousands are killing each other using arms, mysteriously supplied to them from the developed world."

"You do not mention terrorism which is the burning issue today!" I wondered.

"Of course terrorism is another form of aggression outside the pale of law. It is practiced by states as well as people, and is meant to coerce each other for a political or economic end. The difference is that the states perpetrate the crime with impunity and get away with murders, while the individuals get hanged for retaliating against it", he promptly replied. "Both kill innocent people. Unless both are held accountable to justice and punished, this tit-for-tat vendetta will continue." he added.

"Terrorist groups are essentially the aggrieved people of the client states of the superpowers. Such states, by their inability to defend the interest of their own people, have effectively privatized war by default ...( Eduardo Galeano). Finding no justice at home or in any international forum, they are driven to militancy to make themselves heard. They kill and get killed, accepting punishment in advance, while telling the world that the life it offered to them was woefully not worth living. 'People versus Superpower', is a new phenomenon that has appeared after the near demise of the state in a Unipolar world. It has to be recognized and codified under an updated Geneva Convention and the International Court of Justice, which are restricted to dealing with 'State versus State' disputes. Why on earth you men cannot see the obvious? "

"I still cannot find an answer." I said hesitatingly "Every one justifies his own aggression to counter other's aggression and no one agrees on who started it. Every war is claimed to be in the interest of peace. I suggest you read these highly respected scholars who have spent their lifetime in investigating the human mind and behavior. Perhaps tomorrow morning we can resume our dialogue." 

The Martian had assimilated all that was offered with his supersonic perception, and was ready with his comments the next morning: 

"I find different scholars addressing the issue from different points of view. One is the instictivist school, founded by Darwin and led by ethologists like Konrad Lorenz and Desmond Morris. They believe that aggression is innate in animals, including humans, which was developed as a useful instinct during evolution. In the wild, it was used for defending territory and improvement of the species by selection, but never for killing members of the same species. However, social inhibitions and controls of the organized human society, have subsequently distorted this natural urge to destructiveness. This can be corrected by channeling the instinct into constructive activities through a new approach of education, sublimation and imprinting rational responsibility on the mind of the child. The youth, as they question the old values of their parents' generation, can be made aware of the new challenges faced by the mankind and their militant enthusiasm directed towards resolving them. So far, the demagogues have been tapping their energies to serve their vested interests. " 

"The behaviorist school, led by the B. F. Skinner on the other hand, denies existence of aggressive instincts and believe that human behavior is a product of the social conditioning that man undergoes while growing up in his society. Accordingly, behavior can be changed, 'by changing the conditions of which it is a function'. A 'technology of behavior' need to be developed that will use positive reinforcement to recondition human behavior. That can lead to a new culture, where greater good of others becomes a virtue and pure self interest a sin. "

"Erich Fromm, a great mind in contemporary philosophy, finds these approaches reductionist, and based exclusively on either the 'hardware' aspect of nature or the 'software' of nurture. What they altogether ignore are those great qualities, which make man stand out amongst animals. Although accusing man of killing his own kind, they have not given him the credit of laying down his own life for the love of others, a non-instinctual act for any animal. It is not an urge to kill, but love for life that is man's true socio-biological heritage, which is lost in the acquisitive distortions of modern times. It has to be rediscovered and nourished trough genuine freedom and doing away with all forms of exploitative controls. That would need radical changes in the existing social and political structures that are responsible for tolerating and even promoting the destructive aggression that the world suffer from."

"The rationalists like Bertrand Russell warn that the technology of mass killing has excelled to a level of terminal efficiency and puts the future of mankind at stake. The existing political forms are obsolete and unable to avert the catastrophe. Reason is the human attribute that opened up the doors of knowledge. It can be used for banishing war as effectively as it was employed for developing weapons of mass destruction. A number of centuries-old enemies in Europe have succeeded in seeing the last of wars, by deciding to pool up their dignity, freedom and resources instead of fighting over them. There is no reason why, peace zones like the European Union cannot be replicated and eventually consolidated to cover the entire world. The answer lies in working towards a World Government with universal disarmament of the state, which can be built upon the foundation of the United Nations." "So what is your conclusion", I asked earnestly.

"Although your scholars may differ on the roots of aggression, they all agree that its fruits have turned poisonous. What passed for a sovereign right so far, may clash with the well being of the world. If some nation continue to pollute excessively, that will result in an environmental disaster of global magnitude. If they build nuclear arsenals to demand subjugation from the rest of the world, a surprise retaliation may make the planet inhabitable. Nations have to re-learn living together as a world community, the same way as the individuals learnt to live in a civil society. Each one having the right to property, but accepting punishment for depriving others of the same; allowed to grow strong, but barred from intimidating the weak; free to accumulate wealth, but surrendering portion of it for the less fortunate. They must be held accountable to international justice and submit to its verdict the same way as people abide by the laws they frame in order to live in peace, or indeed live at all. This calls for shedding the old culture of rule of the strongest to a new one of rule of law."

I could see a ray of hope but had seen enough of torment inflicted by man over man, not to jump to conclusion, and asked: "But who on earth is going to design the new culture and when?"

"Luckily the dream of Utopia is not as alien to man, as I am to you " added the ET with a glint in his eyes "and new culture is part of it. At present the profit- makers dominate the scene, and they have made a virtue of consumption and acquisition, which necessitates unwarranted exploitation of human and natural resources. Culture is nobody's monopoly, it is a drama written by its own actors who change the plot as it is played out. The designers of a postmodern culture are already there and can be seen at work rallying for world peace, human rights, and poverty alleviation in the world capitals and in their respective fields of action. Some soft pedal their message of love and peace in the dreams of humanity ---- the mothers who sing lullabies of flowers and fairies to beautify the imagination of their young ones; the story -tellers, the poets and the artists whose creativity gives birth to awareness of life and compassion, and the teachers who nurture the minds in their charge to help them decide in favor of peace when war seem imminent; and the promoters of sports and inventors of games who offer outlet to emotions and training to young minds. Others are the enthusiasts ---- the scholars who devote their lives in discovering the cause and effect of human behavior; the scientists who foretell the ugly consequences of aggression, the citizen who refuses to buy from a polluter and the exploiter, and the law-makers who contrive barriers against covert oppression. Last but not the least, are the youthful militants of peace, who question the decadent values of domination and challenge the mightiest on their faces ---- against their designs of invading weaker nations; for what they are doing to the environment of the world and economies of the underdeveloped nations; and for what they are not doing for the starving masses around the world. Millions like you must identify yourselves with them, get organized to dethrone the culture of selfish and exploitative nationalism and replace it with the mission of global well being. The citizens of the world need to join these designers of new culture, to support and encourage them to gather momentum and to win."

Before I could interject "But..." The Martian had disappeared, perhaps to prod another confused mind into action.

The author is an independent commentator based in Karachi, Pakistan