Are we all programmed to kill?

In the past couple of years the world has seen more and more examples of people taking it upon themselves to eradicate their own race, not on a global scale like the attempt made by Adolf Hitler, however, men like Anders Behring Breivic managing to single-handedly kill 77 people and injure 242 makes the world a very frightening place to live in.

A couple of weeks ago I read an article in a tabloid newspaper about a man who lives with a tiger. This man had raised and lived with the tiger since it was a cub, he slept with the animal cuddled it and petted it like it was a domesticated cat. The question asked by most of the people commenting on the article was; what happens when the tiger turns on this man? When the tiger decides it’s too hungry to sit by when this tasty piece of meat is sat next to it.

This prompted me to react in a way I didn’t expect, I thought to myself, why is the tiger considered in any way different to a human being? A tiger’s base instinct is to fight for food, however, it has been proved by some men that they can be tamed. So, if a human being who had been friends with a woman his entire life, a woman which he had married and made a family with suddenly broke down and killed his entire family does that make him any different to the tiger? In my opinion the answer to that question is no, a human being is just as capable of killing one of his own kind as a tiger and a human being is just as capable of killing animals lower in the food chain than itself as a tiger also does. The base instinct always being the creatures own survival, whether human or wild animal.

What then triggers the mind of a human being to kill his fellows? Why does a man one day decide to kill? Is it an individual instinct or is it an instinct that is programmed into us all? I myself have never felt the urge to kill another man, does that mean that I never would? I would like to think so. I wonder how many people on a daily basis have the urge to truly kill someone else but suppress it without even realising.

Is not killing someone purely down to will power? It frightens me to think that the decision to kill another person could be on the same level as smoking a cigarette when you’re trying to quit. When someone with high willpower gets the urge to kill someone else do they simply brush off the notion as foolish, whereas people with extremely low willpower ignore their better judgement and take another persons life.

Who knows what truly goes on in the mind of a killer? But if it all comes down to will power, I hope nobody judges me on the fact that I don’t go to the gym anywhere near as often as I should.

Maybe I should just move to a zoo and befriend a tiger, at least then I would know where I stood.

Matt.

Thats one small step for Mankind, one giant leap for Richard Branson.

A couple of weeks ago I read an article that epitomised the economic elites ability to waste money.

Picture this, Richard Branson the 4^th richest man in the UK walks along side Bill Gates, Carlos Slim, Bernard Arnault and Lawrence Ellison. Together, dressed in full space flight gear they prepare to board a Virgin funded flight to the Moon. This is not a remake of the popular 90’s movie Armageddon starring Bruce Willis. This is in fact a description of the possible journey to the moon of some of the world’s richest entrepreneurs.  Of the people I have mentioned above only Richard Branson is officially involved in the project, a project with the aim of putting man back on the moon.

Don’t take this post the wrong way, I have nothing against Richard Branson or any other self made billionaire (slight jealousy aside), any man or woman that can build a business from the ground up that makes them a fortune deserves credit where its due, however, I can’t help but think the cost involved, in the current economic climate, could be put to much better use.

A person’s money is, after all, that person’s money and a person should be allowed to spend their money on whatever they wish. But when a country like England is in its present situation, Richard Branson may as well collect a few hundred million pounds in a big mound and set fire to the lot (I will be there to collect any strays that may be caught up in the wind).  The amount of money that Virgin as a company pumps back into the British economy can not be ignored of course but having every finger on your hands in a different pie does not warrant the metaphoric burning of  wads of cash in the faces of the British public.

In the end it’s up to you as the reader to decide if the economic elite blasting off to space for a dirty weekend on the moon is morally wrong, but if they televise it, I’ll watch.

Matt.

Where it all starts!

Before I start I should probably introduce myself. My name is Matthew Bowes I am 20 years old (at the moment) and writing is a passion of mine, as it has been for a good few years now. I like exploring the truths about things that, generally, are only explored by rich lunatics, or poor lunatics funded by rich lunatics.... you get the idea.

As it stands, finding a place to start is, difficult to say the least. There are so many different questions that we all have about the world that just don't get explained to us well enough, usually of course, because we are just not meant to know. I won't just be blogging about life's unanswered questions (which will in all honesty, remain for the most part, unanswered) I will also be blogging about, well, life in general, my experiences and the experiences of people I know scrawled on the screen in my often clumsy writing style. In a hope to put a smile on your face while at the same time filling in the gaps that just don' get filled during your day to day life, be that at work, school, college, University or many of the other occupations that this wonderful World considers worthy of the title 'Job'.


Matt.