"Please evaluate this issue essay..."

Are war and crime products of the human condition?

Are products of human nature such as a war and crime actually products of the human condition specifically, lack of resources and territory? The speakers claim so, I strongly disagree, however. Whether we look as science and history or simply look around us in our daily lives, we see ample evidence that human aggression is the product of our nature as humans, and not of our circumstances.

First of all, the claim runs contrary to my personal observation about individual behavior, especially when it comes to males. One need look no further than the local school ground or kindergarten playroom to see the roots of war and crim. Every school yards has its bully who delights in tormenting meeker schoolmates; and in every kindergarten school classroom, there is at least one miscreant whose habit is to snatch away the favorite toys of classmates – purely foe the enjoyment of having seized property of others. And these behaviors are not certainly not for want of resources or territory. Thus the only reasonable explanation is that they are products f human nature – not of the human condition.

Secondly, the claim flies in the face of what scientists have learned about genetically determined human traits. Many human traits – not just physical ones but psychological ones as well – are predetermined at birth. One might argue that lower animal species engage in warlike behavior for the main reason that they might do so to protect their territory or their clan or their food – not because of their nature, yet this point begs the question; for we humans have been genetically programmed, through the evolutionary process, to behave in similar ways. In other wards doing as is simply our nature.

In sum, the author of this statements misunderstands the roots of such phenomena war and crime. The statement runs contrary to my personal observations of human behavior, to the scientific notions of genetic predisposition and evolution of species, and to the overwhelming lack of evidence; that providing ample resources to people solves these problems.