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Every serious change in the balance of offensive and defensive armament signals another sea of bloodletting, until some new balance is established making operat

by ncmncm 5y ago

Every serious change in the balance of offensive and defensive armament signals another sea of bloodletting, until some new balance is established making operations too dangerous to try. And then somebody executes on another idea, and off we go again. The only thing that has ever stalled the gushing blood for long is commerce. Uniquely, the cities of the Harappan culture in Pakistan and eastern India 5000+ years ago betray no hint of any military activity throughout their range, while wars of conquest raged in Mesopotamia. Probably the Javelin missile could be made 10x cheaper and work just as well, but people don't want them to be that cheap.

brador 5y ago
> The only thing that has ever stalled the gushing blood for long is commerce. And religion.
- ncmncm 5y ago
  Religion seems as or maybe more frequently to have been a driver of massacres. Ask the Albigensians.
fourtrees 5y ago
I feel like I ought to note that there's no evidence of military activity (that I know of) in the IVC, but certainly evidence of violence: https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/G_Robbins_Schug_Peaceful_2012.pdf https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/G_Robbins_Schug_Peaceful_2... . I wish it weren't the case, but it seems early Harappan scholars made the same error that early scholars of the Minoans did in concluding that the absence of evidence of violence implied the absence of violence itself. Of course, this doesn't mean that the IVC wasn't a relatively peaceful place compared with places like Sumer or Elam, like you said.
- ncmncm 5y ago
  Military activity is not the only kind of violence. I think evidence of military activity would involve obvious weapons and armor, which have generally been easy to recognize and easy to distinguish from e.g. hunting or ranching equipment. The paper linked notes a prevalence of head trauma, presumably with clubs. It doesn't suggest to me any pattern like religious sacrifice or criminal execution. So, the nature of the violence is hard to discern.

by ncmncm 5y ago

brador 5y ago

> The only thing that has ever stalled the gushing blood for long is commerce. And religion.

ncmncm 5y ago
Religion seems as or maybe more frequently to have been a driver of massacres. Ask the Albigensians.

fourtrees 5y ago

I feel like I ought to note that there's no evidence of military activity (that I know of) in the IVC, but certainly evidence of violence: https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/G_Robbins_Schug_Peaceful_2012.pdf https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/G_Robbins_Schug_Peaceful_2... . I wish it weren't the case, but it seems early Harappan scholars made the same error that early scholars of the Minoans did in concluding that the absence of evidence of violence implied the absence of violence itself. Of course, this doesn't mean that the IVC wasn't a relatively peaceful place compared with places like Sumer or Elam, like you said.

ncmncm 5y ago
Military activity is not the only kind of violence. I think evidence of military activity would involve obvious weapons and armor, which have generally been easy to recognize and easy to distinguish from e.g. hunting or ranching equipment. The paper linked notes a prevalence of head trauma, presumably with clubs. It doesn't suggest to me any pattern like religious sacrifice or criminal execution. So, the nature of the violence is hard to discern.