The Word for World is Forest seems at first to say that war is in the nature of humans or Terran's. It is a common belief that by the time a society is advanced enough to develop deep space travel, they would need to have socially evolved to the point of absolute teamwork; but how would they treat those who they find in the cosmos. This reminds me of a Stephen Hawking quote on extraterrestrial life," "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet. ...If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans." This seems to suggest that war and oppression may be in the nature of society in general.
Going back the book, despite the vast technological advances that the Terran species and society have made, they are still making the same mistakes as they did in the past. They have a strong belief in racism and act upon it through the oppression of the humanoid Athsheadn. They view these Athsheads as second class human beings, just like society in America viewed non whites as second class citizens. What is interesting though is that the Athsheadn are at first a peaceful society, and only understand or implement the concept of war, by dreaming, once they learn it from the Terrans. This seems to take the stance that war is not in the nature of society, it is not inevitable, rather a cultural sickness that exists in the society of humans or Terrans. The expansion and integration of our powerful and advances society to other societies both empowers and curses them. It is not enough to advance our scientific knowledge, we also need to advanced our moral understanding. One more quote from MLK, "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power, we have guided missiles and misguided men."
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