Excerpts from the Introduction of War is the Force That Gives Us Meaning
Here's a book that should be required reading for everyone, universally. A few years back, I heard several NPR interviews with author, Chris Hedges, and finally got around to reading most of his War is the Force That Gives Us Meaning (New York: Anchor Books, 2003)this summer.
From the introduction:
“The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its destruction and carnage it can give us what we long for in life. It can give purpose, meaning, a reason for living. Only when we are in the midst of conflict does the shallowness and vapidness of our lives become apparent. Trivia dominates our conversations and increasingly our airwaves. And war is an enticing elixir. It gives us resolve, a cause. It allows us to be noble…” (p. 3)
"Many of us, restless and unfulfilled, see no supreme worth in our lives. We want more out of life. And war, at least, gives a sense that we can rise above our smallness and divisiveness…"(p. 7)
"…the eruption of conflict instantly reduces the headache and trivia of daily life. The communal march against an enemy generates a warm, unfamiliar bond with our neighbors, our community, our nation, wiping out unsettling undercurrents of alienation and dislocation.” (p. 9)
“War makes the world understandable, a black and white tableau of them ans us. It suspends thought, especially self-critical thought. All bow before the supreme effort. We are one. Most of us are willing to accept war as long as we can fold it into a higher good, for human beings seek not only happiness but alos meaning. And tragically war is sometimes the most powerful way in human society to achieve meaning.” (p.10)
The ironies of being a soldier, and shadows of Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”
““The soldier, neglected and even shunned during peacetime, is suddenly held up as the exemplar of our highest ideals, the savior of the state. The soldier is often whom we want to become, although secretly many of us, including most soldiers, know that we can never match the ideal held out before us. And we all become like Nestor in The Illiad, reciting the litany of fallen heroes that went before to spur on a new generation. That the myths are lies, that those who went before us were no more able to match the ideal than we are, is carefully hidden from public view. The tension between those who know combat, and thus know the public lie, and those who propagate the myth, usually ends with the mythmakers working to silence the witnesses of war.” (p. 11)
“In the wars of the twentieth century not less than 62 million have perished, nearly 20 million more than the 43 million military personnel killed.”(p. 13)
“Before conflicts begin, the first people silenced—often with violence—are not the nationalist leaders of the opposing ethnic or religious group, who are useful in that they serve to dump gasoline on the evolving conflict. Those voices within the ethnic group or the nation that question the state’s lust and need for war are targeted. These dissidents are the most dangerous. They give us an alternative language, one that refuses to define the other as “barbarian” or “evil,” one that recognizes the humanity of the enemy, one that does not condone violence as a form of communication. Such voices are rarely heeded. And until we learn once again to speak in our own voice and reject that handed to us by the state in times of war, we flirt with our own destruction.”(pp. 15-16)
An argument that justifies the use of force
“Even as I detest the pestilence that is war that has left millions of dead and maimed across the planet, I, like most reporters in Sarajevo and Kosova, desperately hoped for armed intervention. The poison that is war does not free us from the ethics of responsibility. There are times when we must take this poison—just as a person with cnacer accepts chemotherapy to live. We can not succumb to despair. Force is and I suspect always will be a part of the human condition. There are times when the force wielded by one immoral faction must be countered by a faction that, while never moral, is perhaps less immoral.” (p. 16)
“We must guard against the myth of war and the drug of war that can together, render us as blind and callous as some of those we battle.” (p. 17)
From the introduction:
“The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its destruction and carnage it can give us what we long for in life. It can give purpose, meaning, a reason for living. Only when we are in the midst of conflict does the shallowness and vapidness of our lives become apparent. Trivia dominates our conversations and increasingly our airwaves. And war is an enticing elixir. It gives us resolve, a cause. It allows us to be noble…” (p. 3)
"Many of us, restless and unfulfilled, see no supreme worth in our lives. We want more out of life. And war, at least, gives a sense that we can rise above our smallness and divisiveness…"(p. 7)
"…the eruption of conflict instantly reduces the headache and trivia of daily life. The communal march against an enemy generates a warm, unfamiliar bond with our neighbors, our community, our nation, wiping out unsettling undercurrents of alienation and dislocation.” (p. 9)
“War makes the world understandable, a black and white tableau of them ans us. It suspends thought, especially self-critical thought. All bow before the supreme effort. We are one. Most of us are willing to accept war as long as we can fold it into a higher good, for human beings seek not only happiness but alos meaning. And tragically war is sometimes the most powerful way in human society to achieve meaning.” (p.10)
The ironies of being a soldier, and shadows of Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est”
““The soldier, neglected and even shunned during peacetime, is suddenly held up as the exemplar of our highest ideals, the savior of the state. The soldier is often whom we want to become, although secretly many of us, including most soldiers, know that we can never match the ideal held out before us. And we all become like Nestor in The Illiad, reciting the litany of fallen heroes that went before to spur on a new generation. That the myths are lies, that those who went before us were no more able to match the ideal than we are, is carefully hidden from public view. The tension between those who know combat, and thus know the public lie, and those who propagate the myth, usually ends with the mythmakers working to silence the witnesses of war.” (p. 11)
“In the wars of the twentieth century not less than 62 million have perished, nearly 20 million more than the 43 million military personnel killed.”(p. 13)
“Before conflicts begin, the first people silenced—often with violence—are not the nationalist leaders of the opposing ethnic or religious group, who are useful in that they serve to dump gasoline on the evolving conflict. Those voices within the ethnic group or the nation that question the state’s lust and need for war are targeted. These dissidents are the most dangerous. They give us an alternative language, one that refuses to define the other as “barbarian” or “evil,” one that recognizes the humanity of the enemy, one that does not condone violence as a form of communication. Such voices are rarely heeded. And until we learn once again to speak in our own voice and reject that handed to us by the state in times of war, we flirt with our own destruction.”(pp. 15-16)
An argument that justifies the use of force
“Even as I detest the pestilence that is war that has left millions of dead and maimed across the planet, I, like most reporters in Sarajevo and Kosova, desperately hoped for armed intervention. The poison that is war does not free us from the ethics of responsibility. There are times when we must take this poison—just as a person with cnacer accepts chemotherapy to live. We can not succumb to despair. Force is and I suspect always will be a part of the human condition. There are times when the force wielded by one immoral faction must be countered by a faction that, while never moral, is perhaps less immoral.” (p. 16)
“We must guard against the myth of war and the drug of war that can together, render us as blind and callous as some of those we battle.” (p. 17)
posted by Elliott at Monday, August 21, 2006
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