Misanthropic Californian

I am so totally not a people person, but I’ve been seeing news that makes me inclined to have a little more faith in humanity. But a lot less faith in governments.

Something like 80% of the population of Iran supposedly wants democracy and friendly relations with the U.S. Despite that, they’re stuck with a government that likes to bring Sharia to bear, and leaders that insist on “Death to America” chants, regardless of whether there’s any real emotion behind them.

There’s also this article, based on a study that concludes that more than 80% of the American combatants in WWII refused to fire on the enemy. Normal people are instinctively reluctant to kill other people, and it’s only through careful conditioning that the military has managed to push the percentage of “battlefield conscientious objectors” down to less than 10%. And according to the article it is conditioning in an almost Pavlovian sense; soldiers drill in shooting man-shaped targets while in full gear, so that when a real battle happens they can methodically repeat the same learned behavior while barely thinking about the act of shooting another person. I don’t blame the military for taking these steps per se — soldiers are more likely to be able to do their job and live to tell the tale that way — but I think it’s another example of why well-trained volunteers are better than all the involuntary conscripts in the world. 

So, while people will no doubt continue to find ways to be awful to each other, it seems that governments have a whole hell of a lot more difficulty getting along with each other than actual human beings. Average people want to not kill other people and get along, or at least leave each other alone, while crazy government leaders find ways to start wars.