3 ms·
War is evil and ought not to be entered into lightly. It is somewhat boring to make that observation because everybody agrees with it. Yet looking at history fo
by jacoblyles 17y ago
War is evil and ought not to be entered into lightly. It is somewhat boring to make that observation because everybody agrees with it. Yet looking at history forces me to conclude that we would not have been able to build our civilization without engaging in this evil a few times. And I think our civilization is one worth celebrating - certainly it has made a dent in many of the other evils that have plagued mankind since the first ape dared to walk upright.
Moreover, it takes courage to enter into the armed forces and be one of the people who sacrifices their personal goals to protect our civilization. So we have a holiday set aside for those people.
I don't think the wars in Vietnam or Iraq were very wise, either. But it seems out of place and immature to sound that drumbeat on this holiday, like an atheist who feels compelled to demonstrate outside of churches on Christmas.
- markerdmann 17y agoOur civilization is one worth celebrating because we have engaged in progressively less war. This, not our use of one evil to flail against another evil, is the cause of our success. If you haven't read Steven Pinker's essay A History of Violence (or seen the related TED talk at http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violen...), I would recommend taking a look.
- jacoblyles 17y agoYes, war is one of the evils which we have reduced. But I don't think we would have gotten to this state by being pacifists. The world is a complex place, full of little contradictions.
- cabalamat 17y agoIndeed not; the pacifists would simply have been exploited and killed or enslaved by others.
- joecode 17y agoI would be careful about taking Pinker's argument too uncritically. It relies on a very particular selection of secondary academic sources, such as Keely's "War Before Civilization." But Keely's book, while a reasonable response to the "myth of the peaceful savage", has been criticized for creating a "myth of the warlike savage". http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a791282214 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a791...
- uhiubiv 17y ago> it takes courage to enter into the armed forces and be one of the people who sacrifices their personal goals to protect our civilization Remembrance day commemorates WWI. Soldiers who had the courage NOT to enter the forces in WWI were shot. The aim of WWI was not to protect civilisation, it was a disagreement over the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires' role in the Balkans.It got somewhat out of hand because the various armies had not noticed that technology had moved on a little since the battle of Waterloo.
- jacoblyles 17y agoSorry, I'm in America where it is Veterans Day. My comments are not applicable for countries where the holiday is treated as a memorial to World War I.