warring european states leapfrogged india, middle east, china technologically and started the colonial era instead of india, middle east, and china, exactly because they were warring states
if india or china or the middle east's internal make up was fierce rivalries lasting many centuries between small proud states, then india, china, or the middle east would have been colonizing europe with more advanced technology
now, europe is united under one political umbrella
and before the warring states period, it was tiny tribes increasingly united due to external warlike forces (rome, huns, mongols, etc)
meaning the trajectory of history of clear: always conflict, but conflict between increasingly larger groups
now it is united europe versus india, china (middle east is still fragmented)
that's progress, and that's real
and in the future, after we contact someone out there or they contact us, humanity will quickly unite behind a single banner, and war and rivalry will continue, but earth versus someone else. the trajectory of history preserved
btw, star trek was never peaceful
in star trek we have peaceful allies (vulcans, etc), but we also have warring neighbors who would gladly destroy us: romulans and klingons (whom always seemed to me to be symbolizing china, and ussr, respectively)
and the episodes were also always full of totally new unforeseen horrible dangers. no episode was "hi strangers, we come in peace, and everything is wonderful, the end"
so star trek is nothing but the stories from the age of exploration, the colonial era, and the cold war era, repackaged
my thought on the future and optimism is this:
when we meet someone out there, we will unite as one planet, and war with them
because: peace is stagnation, like india and china before being visited by europeans from the high seas. therefore if we become a peaceful united planet BEFORE meeting someone else, we will be stagnant technologically, and we will be devoured. like india or china in the colonial era
and if another planet was entirely peaceful, they would never have gone into space to meet us, they would have stagnated. and so we will meet them first, and colonize them like india or china or the aztecs or incans
in this way, i'm glad russia is pissing us off. we need to destroy and colonize russia, as china will most certainly do with siberia. split russia between europe and china. and advance technologically to preserve our fighting spirit in this way. and we will do this most certainly because russia is a belligerent, and weak, asshole
if there is no scramble, there is no reason to advance
but scramble we will