In the news these days there seems to be only violence and bloodshed. It is hard for me to watch but I cannot turn away. I wonder if there is more violence in the world today or if it is only that there is more access to information. I remember going to war myself and wonder if the problem is not also biological, let me try to explain. The mortality of human lives are dependent and in the balance of the mental abilities of a minority of people and their very human characteristics which they let overwhelm their mental capacities for compassion and empathy. I am talking mainly of teenage boys and their animal instincts when left unharnessed devolve into a thirst for violence. I have encountered many a returning veteran in my time who speak of their overseas service as the most exciting time in their lives. Disregarding the horror, the death and sorrow in a way nature has equipped young men with a violent bent to their nature in the era before civilization these were very useful characteristics to help defend their loved ones and communities from threats from other humans or from the environment. Nowadays young men need an outlet to help move them away from this outdated natural urge, the surging hormones in their bodies propel them towards violence as can be seen in many current events. It is young men on both sides of conflicts that keep throwing stones, but they have no other place to turn but violence as they have seen nothing else in their short lives. Harnessing the energy and strength of youth and turning it to humanitarian purposes is what is needed hate breeds hate but more than that young men are biologically programmed and the short era of civilization our species has enjoyed is not enough to turn away from biology. The humanitarian effort in war-torn countries should focus on positively engaging youth if civilization is to survive we sometimes have to control and retrain the human spirit along more positive lines than evolution has given us. It has been shown that in developing countries one of the ways to stop conflict and improve the economy is to empower women, when the sexes are in balance the violent tendencies of male youth are tempered by the female’s natural tendency to empathy and community, let us harness the strengths of both sexes to live in harmony. Perhaps this is an answer that can be taken into account for many of the conflicts in the world today. Equality breeds empathy.

-Dacker Thicke