According to history–taught in U.S. schools at least–human civilizations have been fighting it out since the beginning of time. Warfare, takeovers, domination, slavery, and genocide all count among the maneuvers that Man has subjected each other to. We tend to use words like “conqueror” and “victor” to refer to the more brutal of the two participants of these vicious cultural interactions.
But what is the number one wish of everyone you’ve ever asked “If you could have one wish, what would it be”? Just about every time, people say, “World peace.” But is world peace really possible? And what would happen if it actually occurred? Would differences between peoples dissolve into the commonalities, allowing a free-flow of information across cultures that could benefit us all as more pieces of the life puzzle slide into position? Or would, as Joseph Campbell posits, entire civilizations disappear as a result of the ceasing of the drive to survive? And what is lost with those civilizations when they disappear?
Are there benefits to war? That sentence is a hard one to type. It seems like a preposterous question to ask. But isn’t it time to ask the hard questions? War has been around since the beginning for some reason. Was it for survival? (The U.S. government contaminated blankets with smallpox to offer as “gifts” to the U.S. Native peoples–was that for survival?) Was it due to ego? (Ego’s dual positions of victim or dominator might come into play here.)
Here in the U.S., we tend to have a rather naive take on the idea of war since we don’t typically have another country’s bombs raining down on us or have a foreign military patrolling through our back yards. That perspective matters. Knowing that an incendiary device could ignite, causing chaos and harm, at any time, is not a feeling that many of us deal with on a consistent basis.
As we have been incredibly fortunate to have largely been shielded here in the U.S. from firsthand experience with war, perhaps we should take a step out of our comfortable enclave and consider how different things are for those who haven’t been so lucky.
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