What if humans love violence and war because of our sense of beauty? [View all]
I have recently listened to a melody that was mathematically designed to be the ugliest, most discomforting and disturbing piece of music. That got me thinking:
What is beauty?
Beauty is having two eyes, two arms, two legs. Beauty is having a face of specific proportions.
Beauty is harmony and rhythm.
Beauty is order and symmetry.
BUT...
Beauty is also toying with symmetry.
Beauty is intentionally creating something that defies standards and conventions.
Beauty is intentionally turning order into chaos.
(improvised art, spontaneousness, Manic-Pixie-Dream-Girls, asymmetric fashion and hairstyles...)
There are two things that attract us: Order and the act of turning order into chaos.
HOWEVER...
We are not attracted to chaos itself.
We are attracted to a piece of trash that's a symbol. However we are not attracted to a piece of trash that's mundane.
We are attracted to somebody who's wild and unconventional. However we are not attracted to someone who's unreliable and unstable.
Violence, war, destruction... These turn order into chaos.
Something that has been built up gets torn down.
Nobody likes ruins and trash, but everybody loves destroying things.
Maybe our desire for acts of destruction is a sibling to our desire for beauty.
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