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I think William James had some interesting thoughts about this a century ago: https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/states-war/proposing-moral-equivalent-war https:/

• toasterlovin 8y ago
  That was great, thanks. > They would have paid their blood tax, done their own part in the immemorial human warfare against nature; they would tread the earth more proudly, the women would value them more highly, they would be better fathers and teachers of the following generation. Yup. A couple of further thoughts: 1. To me, one of the more important aspects of my time in construction is that it showed me my physical and mental limits. And I think it is only by locating the extremes that we are able to accurately place the locations between the extremes. 2. I think most men need something that marks the passage from childhood to adulthood. Something which they can point to which was hard, which required toughness to overcome, and which was witnessed by others. IMO a right of passage like this is sorely lacking now that most people grow up without having done hard work on a farm.