Why do we feel the need to expand? Aside from all of the awful ways in which the Western world secured rule over the lands in Asia and Africa, why is it that we cannot ever be happy with what we have? This is an issue for countries as well as with individuals, even today. In America, we have a culture of consumerism in which people just keep buying more and more even though they don't need it. Is it a matter of just keeping up with the Jones? It was sort of about that in Europe. For example, Germany entered the whole "race for Africa" so that they would not wind up the only major power without some land to claim there. But why can we never be content with what we have? What is the allure of having more money than knowing what to do with, or in the case of Europe, more territories? Europe was able to survive economically without those resources gained in Asia and Africa for centuries before they decided to go into those places? Why could they not stay on this path?
I guess I've just been really troubled by history lately. It is full of some many tragedies that could have been avoided had people just decided to remain content with what they had. I often feel that history lacks human compassion. Like in class the other day, when that man said that the atrocities that occur in war are not to be judged in the normal way, even though the people he was defending killed those who had surrendered. Where is the human compassion in this? We were asked to respond to this in class, and I couldn't at that moment because I was so horrified. My answer now is that that no matter then instance, those types of monstrosities are never OK. A human life is a human life no matter where it is or in what situation, and there is never an excuse for forgetting this.
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