The problem with Man

I was reading the news this morning and I read a very interesting article about the upcoming BBC documentary on the WW2 concentration camp, Treblinka. It is being aired tonight (Monday 13th August)and I really hope to watch it somehow. It tells the story of the two remaining survivors of Treblinka who, in order to survive, worked for the Nazis during the Holocaust and in a last moment of bravery, managed to escape.

I am not going to express a lengthy opinion of the unmistakable atrocities we all know were apparent during the Holocaust of World War II nor am I going to attempt to answer my own questions; ‘What made these young Germans partake in the horrific eradication of a race?’ and ‘Was it due to an intrinsic element of personality or was it merely manipulative coercion from a very ominous and convincing individual?’.

It is not a secret that from the beginning of time, man has always been at ‘war’ in some form; if we look back in history we will comprehend that there has continually been periods of fighting, battle and genocide. I suppose we can reason with ourselves that everyone on this planet is different, every race holds its own ethics and beliefs, so in what stretch of the imagination can we be so naive as to wonder why populations of humans don’t ‘get along’? A sad fact of life is that until earth ceases to exist this will probably always be the case. Even currently, I am being told of a South African civil war that is seemingly imminent between the Xhosas and Zulus. Apparently, both groups are striving to slowly eradicate the other. It seems that man will continue to fight for what is ‘his’.

What strikes me as disconcerting though is that we humans, who are scientifically considered a the most intelligent creatures on the planet, fail to learn from our mistakes. Of course there is always going to be conflict between groups of people; I think we can all agree that that is a given. But my question is, why haven’t we learned to deal with this hostility in  more civilized way? Or if we can not go as far as civilized, how about at least non-violent? I am in no way a preacher of peace nor one of those people who prays that the world will one day be harmonious. All I can say is that I find it worrying that we don’t seem to be capable of finding other methods to resolve conflict.

But then again, who am I? What do I know? I fully realise that I am just a 23 year old pondering alternatives. What is most likely is that I am failing to understand that perhaps violence and war are in fact the only options left.