Is warfare a fact of life? Maybe. But to take actions which logically and demonstrably create the very insecurity they are meant to avoid is irrational. Point this out and you are branded an idealist. "Humanity is doomed to violence, so always be ready to kill" is apparently sage wisdom.
There has never been an instance of stable human civilization (beyond small groups or extremely defensible/remote locations) that did not involve the ability to be violent. That ability is not durable. The skills required to ensure it does not become the purpose of a society is not durable. It takes craft, community, and hard work to cultivate the readiness for violence and restrain its application.
It is fine for people to disavow violence. It is beneficial that they do. You will find in the military people who value pacifism more deeply than your average citizen.
We do not have to believe or participate in something to be grateful for the people who do. One personal experience with violence and the value of the readiness to respond becomes apparent.
It seems evident to me that the root of these problems is in our thinking; when we engage in everyday behaviors and experience unexpected results, we easily recognize the error and take corrective action. For instance, if you take a wrong turn while driving. But when the same thing happens with violent conflicts, we seem to shrug our shoulders and say "nothing to learn here, it's just the human condition".
Maybe the best we can do is individually not contribute to the various forms of violence. This requires a level of responsibility that is abdicated when we start with the conclusion that violence is mandatory. It's not very scientific to start with a conclusion.
The argument that "bad people will do X", so we must do X to them first, is a race to the bottom.
This article is, however, very revealing about what Palantir wants to happen, without ever mentioning the profit motive.
Bret Deveraux made a very compelling case that those bans only happened because those weapons were largely ineffective: https://acoup.blog/2020/03/20/collections-why-dont-we-use-ch...
Covid keeps killing more people every month than flu does in a year.
If the idea of humans in the loop has been massively displaced from customer service in the major BigTech megacorps (nearly a foregone surrender to tendency by now) let's hope it at least stays out of other much more critical areas.
This is so offensive. I am infuriated. The last hundred years has been anything but peace for Middle East. You can continue not caring from SF.
By and large, had the nuclear non-proliferationists been stopped, there would also be no war in Ukraine.
