The fact that slaughter is a horrifying spectacle must
make us take war more seriously, but not provide an
excuse for gradually blunting our swords in the name of
humanity. Sooner or later someone will come along with a
sharp sword and hack off our arms.
Carl von Clausewitz, 1780-1831, German general, On
War
These words inspired many politicians and hard military
men. In the name of motherland and safety, arsenals have
been developed, suspicions and distrust promoted, and
with them all the conditions for the explosion of the
most bloody wars.
It’s inevitable, some can say. The reality isn’t pink,
and the enemies aren’t fiction. We aren’t saints, and
neither are our opponents. The world isn’t regulated by
love, but by the law of the sword and of the strongest.
It has always been like that. We were born and evolved
in that context. Wars between human groups, inspired by
the most different reasons, have always existed.
That’s factual: wars and conflicts have always existed;
some of the roots of war are indeed in us, reflecting
the cruelty of the world where we have evolved. But
what’s natural and has been a past rule, doesn’t
legitimate present acts and militarist and aggressive
politics. Nor does it make pacifist arguments
impracticable.
The Cold War and the arms race that followed the Second
World War were an illustration of what the militarist
arguments may provoke and of how dangerous they are. And
the more recent evolution, with the evident appeasement
and demilitarization, is a proof that the past does not
configure present and future, or determine them.
Evil is within us. But also love, including the love of
peace. It can be small, at first sight, but it can be
raised through reason and ethical values. We must not be
frightened «with our own black nature»,
to use Loren Eiseley’s words. «We
are men now, not beasts, and must live like men».
We must not remain fixed to the idea
that «man is evil», and an animal that «has come from
the dark wood and the caves». We can’t deny or ignore
our origins and our darker sides, but we should also
believe in our brighter sides. Through reason, improving
our way of thinking – namely at the political level – we
can deny Clausewitz’s reasoning, and avoid the crazy
spiral of violence, the arms race and many bloody
conflicts.
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Quotations
Loren Eiseley - exert about our instincts
Loren Eisely
, American scientist and writer,
Darwin’s Century
The human brain is an imperfect instrument built up
through long geological periods. Some of its levels of
operation are more primitive and archaic than others.
Our heads, modern man has learned, may contain weird and
irrational shadows out of the subhuman past - shadows
that under stress can sometimes elongate and fall darkly
across the threshold of our rational lives. Man has lost
the faith of the eighteenth century in the enlightening
power of pure reason, for he has come to know that he is
not a consistently reasoning animal. We have frightened
ourselves with our own black nature and instead of
thinking "We are men now, not beasts, and must live like
men," we have eyed each other with wary suspicion and
whispered in our hearts, "We will trust no one. Man is
evil. Man is an animal. He has come from the dark wood
and the caves."
Quotations
Militarist Ethics
Carl von Clausewitz, 1780-1831, German general, On
War
The conqueror is always a lover of peace; he would
prefer to take over our country unopposed
If the enemy is to be coerced, you must put him in a
situation that is even more unpleasant than the
sacrifice you call on him to make. The hardships of the
situation must not be merely transient - at least not in
appearance. Otherwise, the enemy would not give in, but
would wait for things to improve.
The fact that slaughter is a horrifying spectacle must
make us take war more seriously, but not provide an
excuse for gradually blunting our swords in the name of
humanity. Sooner or later someone will come along with a
sharp sword and hack off our arms.
War is a conflict of great interests which is settled by
bloodshed, and only in that is it different from others.
War is nothing more than the continuation of politics by
other means.
Quotations
Pacifist Ethics
Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to
mankind.
John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, American politician, UN speech,
25/9/1961
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by
understanding.
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, in Kevin Harris
EinsteinQuotes.html, rescomp.stanford.edu
In war, whichever side may call itself the victory, there
are no winners, but all are losers.
Neville Chamberlain, 1869-1940, English politician, in Times
4/7/38
There never was a good war, or a bad peace.
Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790, American physicist and
politician, Letter to Josiah Quincy
There is no just war, if we mean a war in which the ordinary
laws and rights of humanity continue to be complied with.
André Comte-Sponville, French philosopher, A short
Treatise on the Great Virtues
Books, Films,
Cultural Stuff on human
nature, war, dark side of men, genocides and so on? See
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