Teddy Roosevelt is attributed with ‘if you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow’.…

Teddy Roosevelt is attributed with ‘if you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow’. What’s happening in the Middle East right now is a repeat of a pattern throughout history. Societies change when they’re forced to change. /1 https://t.co/pHslEcQ3vw

I have no interest at all in any of the team sports framings of what’s going on. To me they’re all people, it’d be nice if they didn’t kill one another. But they will, to try to make their status preeminent. This is how societies have always and will always work. /2

Calls for ceasefires and diplomacy reflect our historical naivety. Those who live in peaceful countries are beneficiaries of earlier violence, to conquer that territory and drive out rivals for status. We didn’t use diplomacy to achieve our peaceful lives. /3

We killed extensively, wiping out rivals. And/or we let things like smallpox do it for us. I’m a broken record, but only catastrophe removes the fight for status, often seen in wars. Or natural disasters can do it for us. /4

The Romans created the framing of much modern life, much of the world we still live in. They did it by conquering first, diplomacy second. If you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow. A.k.a. only catastrophe will unify battling groups. /5

It’s not something I celebrate or advocate. It’s just how history works, always. It’s because human societies run on status, not on economics or politics. Status games never, ever, cease of their own accord. They have to be forced to cease. /6

Alongside the death and destruction in Gaza and now Lebanon, the conflict has spawned an explosion of team sports online and offline, about the conflict. Team sports generating even more team sports. This is why total catastrophic destruction will follow. /7

Nothing will stop the teams fighting, except them being forced to. There won’t be a logical or rational victory for one team over another team. As Planck said, even something like science progresses only when one generation dies, to be replaced by another. /end