we are waging a war that was begun by our distant ancestors, so distant that almost nobody understands it. i am pessimistic that this war will ever be won, in any abstraction. but we may be entering a period where it shifts, and hybridizes with the last remaining other-wars - locking us into a ubiquitous eternal struggle with ourselves.

one of the other-wars is the struggle between the chinese and the japanese, which has interacted with the ancient war but has not yet been subsumed into it. the ancient war has of course shifted and hybridized many times, but it always asserts itself as the ancient war, in the end.

why? well, why did the egyptians and hittites fight over kadesh? for tax revenue.

the ancient war has always been for profit, and that is why it can never end. the divisions are characteristics, and useful to build collective identity, but they are not reasons for conflict.