[lit-ideas] Re: Psychological Interpretation of War (PEACE REVIEW)
- From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 10:12:05 -0800 (PST)
-----Original Message-----
From: "Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D." <libraryofsocialscience@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Jan 2, 2005 9:24 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Psychological Interpretation of War (PEACE REVIEW)
Yes, human beings embrace and perpetuate warfare. Human beings
CREATE the ideologies and social institutions that are the causes of =
war.
Reality is a social construction. It is human beings who construct =
social
reality, based on their own needs, desires, anxieties and wishes.
The "love of warfare" revolves around our attachment to and
willingness to die for sacred ideals. What does it mean to say that it =
is
"beautiful and proper to die for one's country?"
Well, you can say that nations "blundered" into the First World War
as a result of political alliances, but what kept it going? Why did the
leaders of nations continue to ask men to get out of trenches and to run
into machine-gun fire?
At least some leaders did think it was a wonderful, beautiful thing.
Here is what the prominent writer and nationalist Maurice Barres had to =
say,
extoling the virtue of French soldiers dying on a daily basis:
"Nothing more beautiful yet more difficult to understand than these =
boys,
today cold in their graves, who gave themselves for France. With all the
strength of their young lives they urged preparedness; they foresaw that
this would be their own downfall, yet joyously they rushed to meet it."
And here are the words of P. H. Pearse, founder of the Irish =
revolutionary
movement, upon observing the daily carnage in France:
"The last sixteenth months have been the most glorious in the history of
Europe. Heroism has come back to the earth. It is good for the world =
that
such things should be done. The old heart of the earth needed to be =
warmed
with the red wine of the battlefield. Such august homage was never =
before
offered to God as this, the homage of millions of lives given gladly for
love of country."
Some human beings love war because they find the willingness to
sacrifice heroic. We are willing to die and kill because we want to
demonstrate our love, to prove that we are devoted to our sacred ideals.
Warfare represents a vehicle for proving the depth of our love.
A.A. Sorry, this doesn't work for me. It might be helpful to define love and
then ask if there's not a better way to display love than by going out and
killing someone or multiple someones in horrendous ways. If war can be equated
with horror, perhaps more accurately we can say people love horror. I'll buy
that people just like to kill. Otherwise, what would be the point in hunting
and all but worshiping guns? Also, I'll buy that people can't feel another
person's pain (called empathy), so they call the pain they inflict love.
Today there are anger managment classes to prevent domestic violence. Perhaps
they should be retitled love management classes. It might save the world a bit
of gore.
Signing off for now,
Andy Amago
With regards,
Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D.
Library of Social Science
Website for RICHARD KOENIGSBERG
http://home.earthlink.net/~libraryofsocialscience/
Website for THE KOENIGSBERG LECTURES ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CULTURE AND
HISTORY
http://www.conflictaslesson.com/why_main.html
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