BCA

c4: "But if you look at it objectively, in the absence of a treaty, any people will resist an occupier."

This is true and I can't argue with it. All mammals guard their territory.

But to what effect? I know I am going out into the hinterlands of political correctness, but would you trade the air-conditioned, scheduled, pacified existence you have now for a more authentic Viking, Nordic, Gaulic, Teutonic (or whatever race you hail from) existence?

Hobbes wrote that violent death was the worst of all fears. This fear is the driving force behind civilization and cooperation, the foundation of morality (the art of living together). If you follow this foward, you will see that civilization become a very precise form of memetic evolution where humans progressively accept stock illusions in order to avoid the ever-present Hobbsian natural death.

Compared to Western Civ., other civilizations just don't measure up.


As a side note, this simple assertion is what makes the heroes of the American military, who willingly put their lives on the line for an ideal, so deserving of our praise, and our honor.