Man's Savage Inclination Poem by A L KIRSCHBAUM

Since man's first memory of standing on two legs and feeling the wind blowing through his hair, he must have sensed the quintessence of freedom even if he could not conceptualize it. When he killed for food, he did not first enslave his victim. There was no need for bondage.

Was man inclined to kill rather than imprison; was bondage a step toward civility or a leap toward enterprise.

As man developed, did he see bondage as a way to store future food, or as a way to contain a future threat; was he beginning to teach himself that usurping the rights and freedom of other creatures as having future benefits; was he beginning to look at the commerce side of enslavement.

When African hunters enslaved their African brothers, they were not feeling the pangs of hunger, they were not hunting for food, they were not under threat from neighbors; they were imprisoning their brother Africans for bounty. They were learning the benefit of the slavery business. They discovered that they had a salable commodity
...and there were plenty of buyers.

Do we unknowingly lose civility; or do gladly discard it in favor of enterprise and wealth.

When the Japanese soldiers of the pacific war took allied prisoners, there was no civility shown to these POW's. Their treatment of prisoners was so horrific that after the war ended, hundreds of Japanese soldiers were hung as criminals.

Does civility need to be taught because it is not inborn.

Is it only predators that have contempt for their victims. Soldiers know that they have to kill, but most do not take pleasure in killing.
Are those that do, of a different thread; does killing, whether a small animal or another man satisfy a deep seeded need; are some people born as predators; is their contempt for their victims inborn or does it start as a pleasure which they nurture.

Not everyone is wired the same.

A child in Arizona who for years was abused by his grandparents and who, when he had the opportunity, placed a loaded gun at the head of his grandfather, only to realize that he could not squeeze the trigger. There was no one there to stop him, but something prevented him from dispatching his tormentor.

Why haven't generations of mankind been able to extinguish this lingering element of savagery.

The dog butchers of the world perform their slaughter with brazen contempt for their prey. These are not the drafted soldiers in the field doing a job that they hate. These are not the Russian cow and horse butchers feeding the starving troops at the front in freezing weather during hitler's attack. These are perpetrators of the human species performing their vicious act for profit and satisfaction.

Do some men go to war so that they can satisfy this need to kill or is it the desire of other men to make war so that they can become wealthy at the expense of their brothers. When will the dog butchers, the generals and the leaders of nations willing to sacrifice members of their own species be quieted. When will civility no longer need to be taught