Wednesday 10/8/14

Mike: Tim!

T: Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike!

M: What?

T: Guess what day it is.

M: LifeTeen Link of the Week day?

T: Hump Day! WHOOP! WHOOP!

M: Lovely.

T: Yeah, and wait until you see the link I have for you this week.

M: I can hardly wait. Does it have to do with camels?

T: No, but it does come from the country with the world’s largest population of feral camels?

M: … I’ve got nothing.

T: Australia!

M: You’re kidding right? Australia?

T: Look it up, oh ye of little faith.

M: I will later. Show me the link.

T: Here it is, for your viewing pleasure. It’s a video of two kangaroos street fighting to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovski’s “Waltz of the Flowers.”

M: Wow. You know, I went to a kangaroo petting zoo in Australia once, but the ‘roos were a lot less violent!

T: You don’t say! I also got to pet a kangaroo in Australia!
M: Anyway, that video was certainly something. They look almost human. I don’t get it, though.

T: Of course you don’t, but you’ve already made my point.

M: That’s because even I don’t understand all the brilliant things I say.

T: I’m going to ignore that and move on. You said “they look almost human.”

M: That’s because they do!

T: But what an interesting point. Do you know what they’re fighting about?

M: I guess I don’t. Maybe territory? A lady kangaroo? Maybe it’s some sort of underground fight club?

T: Why do we associate seemingly random acts of violence with humanness?

M: Wow, I think I’m beginning to see where you’re going here.

T: I’m not sure you really do. Our response to seeing animals fighting shouldn’t be “they look human,” our response to humans fighting should be “they look like animals.” Physical violence is an affront to God, plain and simple.

M: Yeah, but what about boxing? I like watching boxing.

T: There are exceptions, of course. Boxing and martial arts and other “combat sports” aren’t designed to injure the other person. They’re athletic events which two people decide to engage in with one another for sport. When it’s over, often the fighters have a profound love and respect for one another. Their physical struggle doesn’t represent real violence because they harbor no ill will toward one another. This is different than a street fight, for example, where both combatants are intent on injuring one another out of hate.

M: Wow. But what about war?

T: There are some exceptions in war, but not every war is an exception. There’s a thing called “just war theory” which discusses the criteria necessary for a war to be considered justly undertaken. There are a lot of rules, and you’d be surprised how few wars actually fit into the “just war” category. The criteria include things like making sure war is a last resort, used only after all peaceful options have been legitimately attempted, ensuring that the evil destroyed by the war would be greater than the inherent evil of war itself, and that the purpose of the war must be to prevent the loss of innocent life, not simply to recapture lands, depose someone who is politically disadvantageous, or capture and punish someone for a past offense. In other words, a just war is not about punishing past wrongdoings, but stopping some presently ongoing or future wrongdoing. There also has to be a serious prospect of success, since otherwise it’s only needlessly costing soldiers their lives.

M: Wow. Are you doing a paper on this or something?

T: Maybe I should.

M: So is that it?

T: No, there are more criteria than those, but those are the big ones. Just war theory also has rules about how the war needs to be physically fought. There are rules against excessive force, inhumane treatment of prisoners, and use of weapons whose effects we can’t completely control, like nuclear bombs and dirty bombs which create fallout and kill innocent people.

M: Right, because if you’re going to war to prevent the loss of innocent lives, you shouldn’t be contributing to the death of innocent people yourself.

T: That’s right.

M: Wow. Who knew we could learn so much from two fighting kangaroos.

T: We didn’t. Those kangaroos didn’t teach us anything. They only sparked the discussion.

M: And for that, we thank them.

T: Yeah, whatever.