When you get right down to it, if you look carefully, human wars are most often fought over resources. To hide the base reality from the eyes of the world, because stealing is a shameful act and everyone knows it, various other things are blamed. Nevertheless, you can think of most wars as one monkey who has stuff and another monkey who is aiming to that stuff. Is humanity still so primitive? Has it not learned to share and accept universal rules of ownership? Various experiments have been attempted since the dawn of known history, but as recent wars seem to show, humanity is still at square one: unwilling to share, willing to fight for the right not to, and unwilling to work out and abide by what is fair according to species criteria in circumstances of conflicting personal or group desires.
The mental roots of human greed that result in resource wars can be traced to several psychological factors. These include:
1. Selfishness and egoism: Greed often emerges from an individualistic mindset where personal gain takes precedence over collective welfare. People driven by selfish desires tend to accumulate resources at the expense of others, leading to conflicts when scarcity arises.
2. Scarcity mindset: The belief in limited resources fuels competition and greed. When individuals perceive resources as scarce and believe they must secure them for their own wellbeing, it can contribute to a mentality of hoarding and aggression towards others.
3. Fear and insecurity: Greed is closely intertwined with fear and feelings of insecurity. The fear of losing resources or not having enough for oneself or one’s group can lead to a desperate desire to acquire and control more, triggering conflicts with rival groups or nations.
4. Status and power-seeking: Greed can stem from the desire for social status, recognition, and power. The accumulation of resources is often associated with social prestige and dominance, and individuals driven by a thirst for power may engage in resource wars to assert their superiority.
5. Cognitive biases: Humans possess cognitive biases that can contribute to greed. For example, the “endowment effect” leads people to value what they already possess more than what others possess, making them reluctant to share or compromise. Confirmation bias also reinforces greedy behaviors by selectively perceiving information that supports one’s own self-interest.
6. Short-term thinking: Greed is often driven by immediate gratification and a focus on short-term gains rather than long-term sustainability. This limited time horizon discourages individuals from considering the broader consequences, including the potential for conflicts and the depletion of resources.
It is important to note that while these factors contribute to human greed, not everyone exhibits such behaviors, and individual, social, and cultural factors can influence the degree to which greed is manifested. Furthermore, if resources are needed to survive, greed would not be the right choice of word to describe aggression for resources.