Who exactly are the Others? And why are they mean?

This may seem like an obvious, and rather simplisticly stated question, but it's one that's been puzzling everyone who watches LOST since the beginning of the show.  Maybe not in the front of their brains, but always there.

From that beginning, when Rousseau explained to a captured Sayid that the "Others" stole her baby soon after she and her team wrecked on the island, the Others have been the elusive, mysterious group of people in the background.

Well, at times they've been in the foreground of the action.  But their motives and actions have always been strange and confusing, bordering on illogical at times.  If they have houses and nice clothes, why traipse around the island in rags?  If they can't have children, why steal them?

And to me, above all, why are they so <i>mean</i>?

Cheesy-worded question, I know, but a fundamental one.  The Losties never really threatened the existance or well-being of the Others.  Ben was the one that sent Ethan and Goodwin to infiltrate the two groups of survivors.  They kidnapped a bunch of Tailies, kidnapped Claire, hung Charlie, killed Tailie Nathan, kidnapped Walt, shot Sawyer...all in the first 44 days or so.  Never once did the Losties encroach on their homes or make any kind of hostile moves toward the Others.  They would never have known anything about them (aside from Rousseau's story) if Ben hadn't put all these actions into motion.

I ask again, why in the world are they so <i>mean</i>?

I know there are real and fictional stories of isolationists living in the hills of Montana, the plains of Texas, wherever... that don't "take too kindly to strangers trespassin' on ouwah properteh!"  But even then isolationists seem to tend to warn off, rather than openly infiltrate, attack, harrass and kidnap a group of innocent plane crash survivors (and I say innocent here meaning nobody on Oceanic 815 intended to crash on the island or invade the Others' turf).

I think if and when we actually find out who the Others really are, we'll find out why they're so mean.  And vice versa.  One will eventually follow the other.  But to do that I want to look at the "Other" Others.

Not Ben, not Ellie, not Widmore.  Not Richard or even Jacob.

I'm talking about all the background Others, through the decades that we've seen.  Why are they there?  Where did they come from?  Why do they stay?  Are we to believe none of them have any qualms about the actions they take, nor the orders given out by the leaders?

The earliest time period we've seen the Others is 1954.  The US Army had invaded the island to set up for nuclear testing.  The Other's apparently fought them off and killed them all, leaving behind only uniforms, tents, guns and supplies.  And oh yes, one very large, very leaky hydrogen bomb called "Jughead".  If I had established a commune on an isolated island in the South Pacific and the US Army came in to take it over, I'd probably be a little pissed as well.  The Others seem to be well trained in their new weapons and well disciplined.

The next time period we see them is in the Dharma Initiatives heyday - the early 1970's, specifically around 1973 when young Ben Linus and his father Roger come to the island.  There has been an ongoing conflict with the "Hostiles" (as they were known then) since Dharma arrived.  Widmore was apparently "in charge" of the Others during this period.  A kind of truce was arrived at just before Sawyer and the time-traveling Losties arrived in 1974, which has continued through 1977 and beyond that we know of.  The truce was threatened by the armed men who killed Paul and were holding his wife Amy at gunpoint, but the several times we've seen the Others/Hostiles in their camps in this time period they seem to be living simple, rugged, unassuming lives.  Well armed, as Daniel Faraday found out, but simple lives.

I can't say what the Others/Hostiles will do in the near post-1977 era, since the show hasn't reached that point yet.  However we do seem them at various points in the future timelines:

1988 - Widmore sent Ben and young Ethan (who at some point joined the Others, or was kidnapped by them) to kill Rousseau and the baby.  Ben only brought the baby back.  It's unknown whether the Others controlled the Smoke Monster that attacked Montand, or caused the "sickness" that infected the rest of her team but it's possible.

1992 - Dharma at some point attacked the Others/Hostiles again, and they retaliated by murdering the entire settlement in The Purge.  None in the Barracks appeared to have survived and all the bodies were dumped into a mass grave pit.  As far as we know only Dharmites Kelvin and Radzinsky survived in the Swan, and continued to push the button as usual for years after.

Before 2004 - We begin to see individual Others emerge as members of the community.  Mikhail, Ms. Kluge, Goodwin, Tom & Harper.  Not to mention the teenagers Alex and Karl, whose origin is unknown.  Juliet was brought to the island to do research and it began to seem, due to the Others' inability to reproduce, that they had to supplement their ranks from the outside world.

Even though they are all seen to be living comfortable, modernish lives in the Barracks (Book clubs! Therapy!) after Flight 815 crashes we see them in full primitive mode.  Living in tents, ragged clothes, no shoes, primitive conditions.  For some reason, the Others give up their cushy lives on Ben's orders, and go primitive.  Then they go back to the Barracks and live comfy lives again, playing football and having cookouts..  It's enough to make you dizzy.

When Keamy and the Freighter mercenaries attack the Barracks, the Others have all fled back into the hills.  Ben has directed them to head back to the Temple for safety.  After fighting off the mercenaries, we briefly see their primitive camp when Locke meets up with them just before Ben turns the Frozen Donkey Wheel, and that's the last we see of the Others in the current timeline.

So for the last time, why are they <i>mean</i>?  Why do these people, who seem to like to live calm, isolated, primitive lives one day and busy scientist/doctors/philosophers/Latin speakers another, react with such hostility to the Losties and other innocent parties crossing their path?   Their reaction to the 1954 Army was understandable to an extent, and we don't really know how much Dharma was to blame for the war against them, but again Rousseau and the Losties never did anything to them, never harmed them, never threatened them.

And all the Others did was do unspeakable things to them.

Is the island and "Jacob told me to" important enough to bend their actions willingly?  Is protecting the island from all encroachers such a single-minded pursuit that all encroachers must be expelled?  Did Ben believe in this motivations from the very beginning to the point we see him today?  How can a single group of people, almost every one, be so collectively cruel to outsiders?  I wonder if the mysterious "Room 23" brainwashing video was used on all of them.  Or maybe the Smoke Monster bent their will by "infecting them" like it did Rousseau's husband and crewmates.  Were Ben, Tom, Mikhail, and all the other Others actually responsible for their actions?  Or was it all because of Smokey or the Temple?

Time will tell.  But their motivation, along with the <a href="http://ilovetelevision.com/blog_post/All_Good_Ghostbusters_Have_Daddy_Issues"><b>daddy issues arc</b></a> I mentioned last time, are central to the entire show.