October 2, 2004
The Sacred Connection
Like physical pain which prevents attention from freely alighting
On anything else than the destruction of tissues which it alerts
So does war invade the brain with a terror which overrides all else
Demanding absolute and unerring focus on the matter of survival
Preempting mind from touching soul, soul from touching spirit
I searched like a wounded, enraged tiger to find the why of war
Thinking that if I discovered one or perhaps a handful of causes
I might be able tell people why their behavior makes no sense at all
Teach them what to target in order to end this self-made scourge
Attend to all levels, but know the few fundamental levels at stake
My first lesson was when I recognized the weak interest in my subject
No Manhattan Project for peace to balance that for the atomic bomb
No university consortium charged with how to end armed conflicts
No subsidiary of the United Nations designated to study Awhy war?@
Definitions of wealth and Adevelopment@ which include the military
Undaunted, I pushed on...
Perhaps war is a reaction to painful early childhood dependency
A need to take revenge on an Aother@ for what was done to oneself
Or perhaps the result of a child=s unrequited love for his mother
A desperate need to be her admired hero, if not in life then in death
A state of nature for which no cure exists. The world is violent
Life is nasty and brutal. It is one against all, and all against one
The activation of an archetype imprinted in the human brain
As our ancestors who killed survived B and their victims not
Essential for the progress of evolution B the fittest, the bravest
Overpowering the weakest, less savvy, less cunning, dumb
A characteristic of societies organized hierarchically, where any
Even innocent members of the out-group are fair game for revenge
A vestigial defense against our ancient fears, when from trees
Hominids wandered into plains, becoming prey to large predators
A reasonable, just and righteous response to insults and threats
Received at the hands of others, less civilized, less worthy than we
The continuation of politics with an admixture of other means
Or even not a means but an end in itself, a road to transcendence
Regularly necessary to purify society from its lazy tendencies
Renew its will to power, reach for success, ability to dominate
An inevitable and beneficial result of man=s affirmation of life
Needed to focus society=s acuity, inventiveness and creativity
The revenge of the older generation, seeing death approach
Against the youth, vitality, the Aflower@ of the next generation
The result of the imperative for any group to have an external enemy
Against which it can differentiate itself and form its own identity
The only way a group can achieve self-integration and solidarity
Fear of the Aother@ providing the glue for a sense of community
A rite of passage to help immature males become Areal@ men
Provide opportunities to rape women, save a comrade, be Atough@
A way to direct externally the energies of restless male youths
Lest their ennui turn toward those responsible for their malaise
A giver of meaning to lives devoid of emotions and excitement
Engagement with death confirming to them that they are alive
Then, I remembered that no one has ever measured spiritual connectedness
For spirit (like mind and soul) escapes measurement B science=s sole tool
And yet, the feeling of being embedded in a whole, making sense within it
Being at one with it, reveling in its beauty, surely makes it unequivocal
That the killing of even a one in this universe, diminishes every other one
Would it not be logical that humans differ in the respect of spirituality
As they differ in all other respects B height, body type, agility, intelligence
Musicality, mathematical ability... In what attribute do humans not differ?
It must be that some of us are connected, some less so, and others not
Each of us unaware not only of the fact of our lack but also of its extent
No society is known that does not have a religion, however primitive (a)
Is religion then the way that the connected tell those less connected
How to behave? AThou shalt not kill!@ For some, it is not obvious
They must be told, commanded, and on the Day of Judgement, judged
How religion has tried in every way to make us behave, and failed!
The universe is like a piece of precious, delicately decorated porcelain
A tap of a hammer will produce a crack that spoils its entire beauty B
And some of us have only a hammer with which to relate to the world
Since time immemorial, those who wage war have had God on their side
Their God must surely be a personal, human-like God, a parent figure
Rooting for His child B a judging God, whether harsh or benevolent
My God is transcendental, as abstract as light without the filter of colors
As omnipresent potential as consciousness without superimposed images
As constant as the speed of light. An infinite medium encompassing all
It is not human nature to kill. Killing is a gross violation of our privilege
To participate self-consciously in a creation way beyond our imagination
It is not naive to be a pacifist. It is the only possible choice for the awake (b)
_______________________
Smith, Huston, Why Religion matters B The Fate of Spirit in an Age of Disbelief (HarperSan Francisco, New York, N.Y.), 2001, p. 155.
(b) Buddha
means AI am awake@ B from the Sanskrit root budh which means to
awake and to know.
Smith, Huston, The Illustrated World=s Religions B A Guide to our Wisdom Traditions (HarperSan Francisco, New York, N.Y.), 1958/1994, p. 60.
Selected
References B
Causes of War
(Within each section, references are in chronological order)
Perhaps war is a reaction to painful early childhood
dependency
deMause,
Lloyd
Foundations
of Psychohistory (Creative Roots, Inc., P.O. Box 401,
Planetarium Station, New York, N.Y.), 1982, pp. v and 1).
ARather than wars being terrible >mistakes,=
[they are] wishes.@
AThe history of childhood is a nightmare from which
we have only recently begun to awaken.@
The Emotional Life of Nations (Karnac/Other Press, New York, N.Y.), 2002, p. viii.
AGroups go to war both to revenge their childhood traumas and to rid themselves of feelings of sinfulness, hoping to cleanse their emotions and be reborn by sacrificing victims representing >bad= parts of themselves.@
Or perhaps the result of a child=s unrequited love for his mother
deMause, Lloyd, The
Emotional Life of Nations (Karnac/Other Press, New York, N.Y.), 2002, p. 181:
A[War provides the opportunity to] simultaneously
take revenge against the terrifying mommy alter, kill the bad-child alter, be
reborn, and become pure and lovable, all in one splendid act of mass butchery.@
A state of nature for which no cure exists
Thucydides (c. 460-c.400 B.C.). This Greek general and historian, chronicler of the Peloponnesian War from 431 to 411 B.C., reflected the attitude of his countrymen in considering that war is a natural state and the basis of society.
Elshtain, Jean, Women and War (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL), 1987, pp. 47 and 87.
Saxonhouse, Arlene, AMen, Women, War and Politics: Family and Polis in Aristophanes and Euripedies,@ Political Theory 8:1, February 1980, pp. 65-81, quotation on p. 66; cited in Jean Elshtain, Women and War (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL), 1987, p. 47.
Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679):
ALife is nasty, brutish and short... War is of all against all, all of the time.@
Quoted in Jean Elshtain, Women and War (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL), 1987, pp. 84 and 88.
Freud, Sigmund (1856-1939), Civilization and its Discontents (W. W. Norton, New York, N.Y.), 1989, p. 82.s:
AThe meaning of the evolution of civilization is no longer obscure to us. It must present the struggle between Eros and Death, between the instinct of life and the instinct of destruction, as it works itself out in the human species. This struggle is what all life essentially consists of.@
Quoted in Chris Hedges, War is
a Force that gives Us Meaning (Anchor/Random House, New York, N.Y.), 2002,
p. 158.
Stevens, Anthony, The Roots of War and Terror (Continuum, New York, N.Y.), 2004, p. 10-11:
AWe inhabit a universe of unimaginable violence... Human transactions are no less discordant than celestial ones... Wherever human communities exist, conflict is generated both within them and between them at all levels of intimacy... Conflict is a principle of nature.@
The activation of an archetype imprinted in the human brain
Stevens, Anthony, The Roots of War and Terror (Continuum, New York, N.Y.), 2004, p. 25:
AWhenever a behavioral trait is found to be characteristic of all human communities, irrespective of culture, race, or historical epoch, then it should be considered to be the expression of an innate propensity or archetype.@
Essential for the progress of evolution
Machiavelli, Niccolo (1469-1527). Author of The Prince, Machiavelli saw politics as a constant struggle for power, positing that the goal of life is victory, success, and the grabbing and holding on to power.
Elshtain, Jean, Women and War (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL), 1987, p. 56.
Darwin, Charles (1809-1882), The Descent of Man:
AMan [is] the most dominant animal that has ever appeared on earth.@
Quoted in Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood Rites B Origins and History of the Passions of War (Owl/Henry Holt, New York, N.Y.), 1997, p. 45.
Marx, Karl (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895). Both Marx and Engels accepted war as not only a fact of life but inevitable and even desirable as a weapon of historic transformation. Engels described the dialectical mission of peoples not destined for historic triumph B their task was Ato perish.@
Elshtain, Jean, Women and War (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL), 1987, p. 81.
Kaplan, Robert, The Coming Anarchy B Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War (Vintage/Random House, New York, N.Y.), 2000, p. 171:
AWar, much more than peace, is an equalizer and a fomenter of social change.@
Stevens, Anthony, The Roots of War and Terror (Continuum, New York, N.Y.), 2004, pp. 26-27 and 38-39:
AFrom the archetypal standpoint, wars may be regarded as natural phenomena possessing a periodicity and a function somewhat similar to forest fires... [They] keep human groups in a state of ecological balance (i.e., in balance with each other and the environment) and select the >fittest= genes among male members of the community... Viewed from the strictly biological point of view, sanctioned use of violence between human groups would not have come into being had it not contributed to the propagation of the species.@
A characteristic of societies organized hierarchically
Kelly, Raymond, Warless Societies and the Origin of War (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI), 2000, pp. 2, 6, and 51:
AArchaeological evidence points to a commencement of warfare that post-dates the development of agriculture... [War] entails a radical emotional displacement absent in capital punishment... There is a very strong association between an unsegmented organizational type [of society] and a low frequency of warfare among foragers. [Unsegmented societies] lack the organizational features associated with social substitutability that are conducive to the development of group concepts.@
A vestigial defense against our ancient fears
Lorenz, Konrad (1903-1986), On Aggression (Bantam New York, N.Y.), 1966, p. 261:
ATo the humble seeker of biological truth, there cannot be the slightest doubt that human militant enthusiasm evolved out of a communal defense response of our pre-human ancestors.@
Quoted in Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood Rites B Origins and History of the Passions of War (Owl/Henry Holt, New York, N.Y.), 1997, p. 77.
Ehrenreich, Barbara, Blood Rites B
Origins and History of the Passions of War (Owl/Henry Holt, New York, N.Y.), 1997, pp. 46-47:
AThere were at least two broad and overlapping epochs
in prehistory B one in which our ancestors confronted the world,
for the most part, as potential prey, and another in which they took their
place among the predators which had for so long oppressed them... [This has] to be the single greatest advance
in human evolution. The original trauma B meaning, of course, not a single event but a
long-standing condition B was the trauma of being hunted by animals and eaten..., the terror
inspired by the devouring beast, and the powerful emotions... required for
group defense.@
A reasonable, just and righteous response to insults and threats
Yahweh of the Old Testament (c.9,500 B.C. to 2,500 B.C.) sometimes requires that enemies of his chosen people be displaced and slain.
Elshtain, Jean, Women and War (University of Chicago, Chicago), 1987, p. 121.
Saint
Augustine (354-430 A.D.). Father of just-war theorists, St. Augustine
took as his starting point, not the state, but human existence as experienced
since the Fall.
Elshtain, Jean, Women and War (University of Chicago, Chicago), 1987, pp. 128-129.
Keeley, Lawrence, War before Civilization B The Myth of the Peaceful Savage (Oxford University, New York, N.Y.), 1996, pp. 35 and 116:
AIn civilized war, ancient and modern, tremendous manpower (and womanpower) is required just to equip and supply military formations... The precipitating causes of most wars B primitive and civilized B are acts of violence that provoke further violence in immediate defense or subsequent retaliation.
The continuation of politics with an admixture of other means
von Clausewitz, Carl Philipp Gotlieb (1780-1831):
AWar
is the continuation of politics with an admixture of other means.@
Quoted in Martin van Creveld, The Transformation of War (The Free Press, New York, N.Y.), 1991, p. 124.
van Creveld, Martin, The Transformation of War (The Free Press, New York, N.Y.), 1991, p. 175:
AIt is not a just cause that makes for a good war but a good war that makes for a just cause, especially in retrospect.@
Stoessinger, John, Why Nations go to War, 8th Edition (Wadsworth/ThomsonLearning, Belmont, CA), 2001, p. 255:
AThe case material reveals that perhaps the most important single precipitating factor in the outbreak of war is misperception.@
Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri, AMultitude B War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (Penguin, New York, N.Y.), 2004, pp. 341-342:
AThe forces of democracy must counter this violence of sovereignty but not as its polar opposite in symmetrical fashion... There is no dialectal rule (of the kind so widespread in theories of pacifism) by which the behavior of the multitude in exodus must respond to the attack of sovereign power with its symmetrical opposite B meeting the repressive violence with the absolute lack of violence... A democratic use of force and violence is neither the same as nor the opposite of the war of sovereignty. It is different... Democracy must use violence only as an instrument to pursue political goals.@
Regularly necessary to purify society from its lazy tendencies
Hegel, Georg (1770-1831):
AIn times of peace, civil life expands more and more, all the different spheres settle down, and in the long run, men sink into corruption, their particularities becoming more and more fixed and ossified. But [the] health [of a nation] depends upon the unity of the body, and if the parts harden, death occurs.@
Quoted in Carl Friedrich, The Philosophy of Hegel (Modern Library, New York, N.Y.), 1953, p. 322; cited in Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood Rites B Origins and History of the Passions of War (Owl/Henry Holt, New York, N.Y.), 1997, p. 202.
Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826), 3nd president of the United States (1801-1809), commenting on the ongoing Shays Rebellion, 1786-1787, in a letter to Colonel Smith, son-in law of John and Abigail Adams:
AThe tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is a natural manure.@
Whitman, Willson, Ed., Jefferson=s Letters (Hale and Company, Eau Claire, WI), undated, p. 83; quoted in Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, AMultitude B War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (Penguin, New York, N.Y.), 2004, p. 248; also quoted in Michael Adams, The Great Adventure: Male Desire and the Coming of World War I (Indiana University, Bloomington, IN), 1990, p. 51; and re-quoted in Lloyd deMause, The Emotional Life of Nations (Karnac/Other Press, New York, N.Y.), 2002, p. 52.
Von Treitschke, Heinrich (1834-1896):
AOne must say in the most decided manner: >War is the only remedy for ailing nations!=@
Quoted in Adam Gowans, Translator
and Editor, Selections from Treitschke=s
Lectures on Politics (Frederick Stokes Co., New York, N.Y.), 1914, pp.
23-24; cited in Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood
Rites B Origins and History of the Passions of War (Owl/Henry Holt, New York, N.Y.), 1997, p. 202.
An inevitable and beneficial result of man=s affirmation of life
van Creveld, Martin, The Transformation of War (The Free Press, New York, N.Y.), 1991, pp. 164-165 and 226:
ACoping with danger calls forth qualities such as boldness, pride, loyalty and determination... What makes coping with danger so supremely enjoyable is the unique sense of freedom it is capable of inspiring... Fighting demands the utmost concentration. By compelling the senses to focus themselves on the here and now, it can cause a man to take his leave of them... In the whole of human experience, the only thing that even comes close is the act of sex... However, the thrills of war and fighting are probably more intense than those of the boudoir. War causes human qualities, the best as well as the worst, to realize their full potential... War is life written large.@
The revenge of the older generation, seeing death approach
deMause, The Foundations
of Psychohistory (Creative Roots, Inc.,
P.O. Box 401, Planetarium Station, New York, N.Y. 10024), 1982, p. 33:
AOld women, symbols... of the grandmother... were thought to have an >evil eye= under whose gaze the child would die... Fathers of every age tell their sons,... >I would rather have a dead son than a disobedient one.=@
The result of the imperative for any group to have an external enemy
van Creveld, Martin, The Transformation of War (The Free Press, New York, N.Y.), 1991, p. 183:
AWar has been the field in which sexual differences are most pronounced.@
Kaplan, Robert, The Coming Anarchy B Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War (Vintage/Random House, New York, N.Y.), 2000, p. 171:
AThe peace of the Cold War allowed the West to define the philosophical terms of its freedom and prosperity by virtue of whom we were up against B for definitions are impossible without boundaries, which often take the form of enemies.@
Stevens, Anthony, The Roots of War and Terror (Continuum, New York, N.Y.), 2004, p. 28:
AAttraction and repulsion, like life and death, are principles which function in apparent opposition to one another throughout nature.@
The only way a group can achieve self-integration and solidarity
Rousseau, Jean Jacques (1712-1778). For Rousseau, the polity must be as one, the national will undivided, and citizens must be prepared to defend civic autonomy through force of arms. The body individual and the body politic must be driven by a single motor.
Elshtain, Jean Elshtain, Women and War (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL), 1987, p. 60.
Hegel, Georg (1770-1831). Hegel celebrated the triumph of the nation-state B kriegstaat (Awarfare state@). War-constituted solidarity is immanent within the state form. Peace poses the specific danger of sanctioning the view that the atomized world of civil society is absolute. It is only through war that it can be shown whether individuals can overcome selfishness and work for the whole, sacrificing themselves in the service of the inclusive good.
Elshtain, Jean, Women and War (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL), 1987, pp. 73-75.
Stevens, Anthony, The Roots of War and Terror (Continuum, New York, N.Y.), 2004, pp. 38 and 50-51:
AOur capacities to collaborate with members of our own group... have developed along with our capacities to hunt and make war... The bonding of young males for aggressive pursuits is... an archetypal disposition which can be activated, trained, and exploited by more senior males...@
A rite of passage to help immature males become Areal@ men
Tiger, Lionel, Men in Groups (Panther, London, U.K.), 1971 (no page number); cited in Anthony Stevens, The Roots of War and Terror (Continuum, New York, N.Y.), 2004, p. 150:
AMale bonding I see as the spinal column of a community, in this sense: from a hierarchical linkage of significant males, communities derive their intra-dependence, their structure, their social coherence, and in good part their continuity through the past to the future.@
Ehrenreich, Barbara, Blood Rites B Origins and History of the Passions of War (Owl/Henry Holt, New York, N.Y.), 1997, p. 150:
AIn war [the warrior] finds adventure, camaraderie, searing extremes of emotion, proof of manhood, possibly new territory and loot, and always the chance of a >glorious death,= meaning not death at all but everlasting fame.@
Steven, Anthony, The Roots of War and Terror (Continuum, New York, N.Y.), 2004, p. 150:
AFrom the psycho-biological standpoint, maleness, dominance, aggression, authority, discipline, territoriality, the will to power, Logos functions, and the maintenance of law and order are all linked concepts...@
A way to direct externally the energies of restless male youths
van Creveld, Martin, The Transformation of War (The Free Press, New York, N.Y.), 1991, p. 170:
AThe successful conduct of war requires a certain boyish enthusiasm. This enthusiasm, in turn, can cause those who engage in it to retain their boyishness. War has always been the business of the young.@
Stevens, Anthony, The Roots of War and Terror (Continuum, New York, N.Y.), 2004, pp. 190-191:
AFinding
boredom unendurable, young men of all cultures crave excitement, commitment,
achievement, success. All of these needs
can be met by participating with comrades in a warlike adventure, which can
also bring fame, valor, honors, women, riches, esteem... Peace offers few ways of achieving
these. War offers many.@
A giver of meaning to lives devoid of emotions and excitement
Bishop of London, 1914:
AKill Germans B to kill them, not for the sake of killing, but to save the world B to kill the good as well as the bad, to kill the young men as well as the old, to kill those who have shown kindness to our wounded as well as those fiends who crucified the Canadian Sergeant... As I have said a thousand times, I look upon it as a war for purity. I look upon everyone who dies in it as a martyr.@
Quoted in Jean Elshtain, Women
and War (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL), 1987, p. 137.
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1905-1980):
AHatred, blind hatred... is [the Algerian natives=] only wealth... This irrepressible violence... is man re-creating himself... The rebel=s weapon is the proof of his humanity.@
Quoted in Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove, New York, N.Y.), 1963, pp. 17 and 21-22.
Ehrenreich Barbara, Blood Rites B Origins and History of the Passions of War (Owl/Henry Holt, New York, N.Y.), 1997, p. 140:
AAt the level of the individual, the symmetry of war may even be expressed as a kind of love. Enemies by definition >hate= each other, but between habitual and well-matched enemies, an entirely different feeling may arise.@
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