From the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast #525, 7/21/14
My number one thing about war, the number one thing is, on an individual basis… take out the context of the situation, the culture they live, the language they speak… these people don’t know each other. Why are they fighting to the death? They don’t even know each other? You’re launching missiles at people you’ve never met. They’re shooting back at you! It’s crazy, the fact we still do it in 2014. I don’t give a fuck whose side you should be on or what it represents. It represents the fact that we’re still retarded. It represents the fact that we still can’t figure out our differences in other way than shooting missiles at each other or dropping bombs, or setting up IEDs, or shooting at checkpoints, or whatever it is. Whatever method they choose to show that we are still in some way barbarians. And that’s what it is, we’re still barbarians with way better weapons; it’s fucking crazy.
My number one thing about war, the number one thing is, on an individual basis… take out the context of the situation, the culture they live, the language they speak… these people don’t know each other. Why are they fighting to the death? They don’t even know each other? You’re launching missiles at people you’ve never met. They’re shooting back at you! It’s crazy, the fact we still do it in 2014. I don’t give a fuck whose side you should be on or what it represents. It represents the fact that we’re still retarded. It represents the fact that we still can’t figure out our differences in other way than shooting missiles at each other or dropping bombs, or setting up IEDs, or shooting at checkpoints, or whatever it is. Whatever method they choose to show that we are still in some way barbarians. And that’s what it is, we’re still barbarians with way better weapons; it’s fucking crazy.
I understand that sometimes there’s acts of aggression and you need to protect people from people more barbaric than us, but it makes me sad. That’s the only way I know how to describe my feelings about anything that happens with war in the news. Anytime violence breaks out, anytime like this Gaza Palestine thing, I just get depressed at my core. I can’t read about it; I’m not going to pick a side. I’m not. My side is the human side. I’m on the human race side, and the human race is not benefiting from this fucking shit. I don’t know what it would take to cause Palestine and Israel to be cool with each other, I don’t understand it. I don’t know how you could hate each other for so long, how you could have so many different points of view, how you get a guy like Dennis Prager who says:
“Palestine will not be happy unless Israel is dead. There is no negotiating.”
Oh come on, they’re fucking people! They’re people! I don’t know how they’re communicating, if they understand each other’s language, I don’t know how much of this is just deep-seeded ancient shit that these people have carried with them forever, but my position on it, I’m not taking any sides. The whole thing is completely fucked. The whole thing is fucked. It’s fucked that people still do this.
Until we recognize that it’s fucked...and maybe if I lived in Israel I would have a totally different state of mind. Maybe if I lived in a place that was regularly attacked I would be more harsh and more closed off to it, I don’t know. I don’t know. But for people who want my take on it, who keep tweeting me about it, that’s my take. I’m tired of living my life… I mean look, I’m 46, I’ll be 47 in August - at what point in time... as a person, I've grown and matured and I understand myself and how I interface with myself and society and culture much better. I’m much better at it. But when I look at human beings in general, I don’t necessarily know if I see that much growth when it comes to international relations, when it comes to war, when it comes to the way we react to each other. I keep seeing these same fucking patterns repeating themselves over and over, whether it’s in Iraq or this idea that we’re supposed to invade Syria. Or you have Dick Cheney going on the news the other day and he says his number one regret was that he “didn't invade Iran the same time they invaded Iraq.”
...You know, I’m disappointed in human beings. I think there’s gonna come a certain time when we’re gonna have to get to the root problem - why do these things always have to end in unfathomable violence? Like what is it about human beings? And is it the way we’re being led? Is it the way we’re being governed? Or is it something about some fundamental aspect of us of what we are as a being? I don’t have the answer for that. But I do know that me, as a person who hopes for the best, who wishes for the best in human beings, I see this and it just makes me sad. There’s no other way to describe it. I know that’s a very limited way of describing things, and it leaves a lot open to interpretation, but that’s how I feel about it.
