Part of Nature?

I am still here in Chiang Mai for my peace studies course. And i believe the main reason i am homesick just purely 2 weeks into my course is simply because it is Chiang Mai, not Geneva. :P

The group of participants for this peace studies course is like a melting pot. There are chatterboxes with extreme antics, mothers who fuss over everyone and everyting, fathers who frown upon everything they wouldn't expect their daughter to do, people who spray perfume as if they need to disguise the smell of just falling out of the dumpster, women who are so egoistic you swear they had a sex change, men who pretend they are not married, journalists who talk and talk and talk but never listens, fiances who go around smelling people's hair, and people who complain bout everything from the food to the weather to the smell of the air. 

Sigh.....

One interesting thing that we all have in common despite our autonomy is that we are all seeking inner peace. Today we had an interesting "argument" about violence and nature. In this argument ( note i did not classify it as discussion ), we talked about quantum physics and how that can be applied to people and nature. Now of course, a few clowns in the class noted that we have to practice violence because look at Gandhi, he died in the end being murdered. And some others argued that the Quran says, "jihad jihad all the way". Now, i am no pro at quantum physics and nor am i any better in knowledge of Gandhi of the Quran, but there's one thing is know for sure. It is sure as hard as hell to be a peaceful person ( look at the greater good, choose of the lesser evil, meditate and see what your heart desires, and suffering is the way of life BLABLABLA) when you are living with 25 other individual characters from all parts of the world. 

I wish that besides being able to lecture from now on about the different theories to resorting to nonviolent peaceful interventions, i would be able to practise it myself. I have never been this short of patience and i blame it partially on my hormones. But one good thing that came out of the discussion today was the nature versus nurture theory of violence.

Some of my classmates agreed that humans are violent my nature, because being part of the bigger universe, every element and being has a violent nature. Some argued that Violence is something that is nurtured and humans innate nature would be compassion, more than violence. Some said that we cannot compare Humans to nature because human governs nature and nature is less violent than humans because the cows and the monkeys and the elephants do not have what we have, science, religion and technology. What is MY opinion? 

Well, i think there is truth in each statement yet not one statement is entirely accurate. The reason Humans govern over nature is because we have separated ourselves from nature. We are looking at it with superiority complex, even tho we cant even explain simply things like how baby turtles know where to head to when they are laid on shores and expected to return to sea without their mother's guidance. We cannot fully understand the workings of nature because we judge what is civil and what is primitive. 

As for violence, i believe that violence is nurtured. While there are arguments that animals display violent characteristics as well because they prey and hunt and kill, and natural disasters bring nothing but violent events, i believe that nature may come across as violent to us, but does not intend to be violent. Earthquakes happen because the earth's plates move. It is what they do, they move. And we experience the harm, simply because we are living on it. However, war doesn't happen simply because it is inevitable, it is always because of the higher power that one has over the other. It is driven by greed and the need to be territorial. Wars are never a product of  needs. It is ALWAYS a product of wants.

Only humans hoard. The rest of nature, take what they need when they need it. A squirrel hoards nuts to prepare for the winter and always has just the right amount till summer comes. We humans, believe that the more we have is better. We will never be happy with being sufficient, because sufficience does not give us power.

So the question really isn't whether we are part of nature or not because we have a more complex brain. It is more of whether nature thinks we are worthy to be part of them or not in the first place...