This is a fascinating essay, which manages to predict the mood and military conflicts of the first half of the twentieth century quite well. It doesn't manage

This is a fascinating essay, which manages to predict the mood and military conflicts of the first half of the twentieth century quite well. It doesn't manage to be postmodern enough, which isn't all that surprising considering when it was written. But we now live in a world where the weapons are so good, that the next war truly could be the last one. And where the values and greatness of martial spirit led to disastrous results. I don't really feel that the values were all that great to begin with, to be honest, but I can see why some people do. Certainly, there have been projects to try to channel ambition and nationalism into peace, and the Olympic Games are the top example. And like a lot of modernist endeavors it works up to a point, but has obvious flaws. I'm not entirely sure that war is a permanent state of humanity, though. Possibly humans are still in the process of domesticating themselves.