This is an opinion website which usually talks about violence from the outset.
We are not condemned to war because of our biology.
Have you heard of the 1986 Seville Statement on Violence? It’s a key historical document that explains that violence and war are not innate, they are a choice.
The statement was compiled by 20 scientists from different disciplines – including anthropologists, biologists, physiologists, political scientists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and sociologists from around the world.
While some argue the veracity of the statement even to this day, the collective weight of knowledge among those present, and the variety of specialism represented in that scientific community, is worth acknowledging. Not least of all, because the latest research seems to support what the statement says.
The following text is taken from the wording cited by J. Martin Ramirez (Psychobiology, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain), who was one of the scientists who put his name to the statement. The full statement was adopted by the UNESCO General Conference in 1989 and can be found here.
1. It is scientifically incorrect when people say that war cannot be ended because animals make war and because we are like animals: neither do animals make war, nor are we like animals. Unlike animals, we possess culture that we can change.
2. It is scientifically incorrect when people say that war cannot be ended because it is part of human nature, because our human culture gives us the ability to shape and change our nature from one generation to another.
3. It is scientifically incorrect when people say that violence cannot be ended because people and animals who are violent are able to live better and have more children than others. Actually, evidence shows that people and animals do best when they learn how to work well with each other.
4. It is scientifically incorrect when people say that we are violent because of our brain. The brain can be used for cooperation just as well as for violence. It depends on how we are brought up and how we choose to live our lives.
5. It is scientifically incorrect when people say that war is caused by “instinct.” None
of our behavior is so determined by biology that it cannot be changed by learning.
It continues “In modern war, the decisions are not usually emotional; instead, they are made in the way soldiers have been trained…The most important question is why they are trained and prepared that way in the first place by political leaders and the mass media.
We are not condemned to war and violence because of our biology. Instead, it is possible for us to end war and the suffering it causes. We cannot do it by working alone, but only by working together….In the same way, war was invented in ancient times, and we can invent peace in our time. It is up to each of us to do our part.”
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