We look to them for solutions. But I believe the answer lies not with our stars, that we are brutes, but with our history. Historians reveal us to ourselves with an honesty that is not often found in either the promotional material of the NRA or the pyrotechnic fabulism of Hollywood. There is not much comfort to be drawn from their honesty. Since the dawn of civilization, human history has been a violent and bloody parade of horrors.
Empires rise and fall on the backs of their soldiers.
Peace is won with blood. In the whole vast human saga, there has only been one long and protracted period of relative peace among the major powers of the dominant civilizations. It was a period that came, not surprisingly, after some of the bleakest and bloodiest chapters in our history. We're living in that period. Look to history.