AFTER VIOLENCE: 3R, RECONSTRUCTION, RECONCILIATION ...

and property. Creativity in life-enhancement, in promoting Other,
even "them", is also ruled out as treason.
And the same applies to the third virtue: empathy, the
capacity to understand Other from the inside; high treason. In
doing so Other's behavior becomes a consequence of his history.
External causes become good reasons. The will to kill "them" may
be subverted. Non-war, even peace may be around the corner. The
fact that we are around testifies to a lot of resolution capacity.
And reconstruction. And reconciliation. How come?
This will be taken up later. At this point, let us only
conclude by asking a very naive question. Given all these
negative effects of violence in general, and war in particular,
how do we explain that human beings in their right mind
nevertheless engage in so much violence?
First, if by "right mind" we mean a "cost-benefit" mind, then
we have left out the possible, expected, both in the sense of
predicted and in the sense of hoped for, benefits to Self. They go
far beyond booty, into reinforcing world power pyramids.
Second, if by "cost-benefit mind" we mean egoistic cost-
benefit, then Self has to wage war in such a way that benefits
come to Self and costs to Other. Kill any number of enemy
soldiers and civilians as long as your own are unscathed. To do
this, maneuver so that the choice of time and place is yours.
Third, who said human beings are necessarily in "their right
mind", if by that we mean having the costs, including to Other,
weigh more than benefits, including to Self? Something else may
be running their minds, in addition to the cognitions of utilities
and probabilities, their products and the sum thereof. That
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