Subject: Paper 70.  Part 2. 
Aug. 24, 2011.

  This says that young men love w-r.

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ppg (783.5) 70:1.2
Wa- is an animalistic reaction to misunderstandings and irritations; peace
attends upon the civilized solution of all such problems and difficulties. 
The
Sangik r-ces, together with the later deteriorated Adamites and Nodites,
were all belligerent.
The Andonites were early taught the golden rule, and, even today, their
Eskimo descendants live very much by that code; custom is strong among
them, and they are fairly free from violent antagonisms.

Andon taught his children to settle disputes by each beating a tree with a
stick, meanwhile c-rsing the tree; the one whose stick broke first was the
victor. The later Andonites used to settle disputes by holding a public show
at which the disputants made fun of and ridiculed each other, while the
audience decided the winner by its applause.

But there could be no such phenomenon as wa- until society had e-olved
sufficiently far to actually experience periods of peace and to sanction
w-rlike practices.
The very concept of wa- implies some degree of organization.

With the emergence of social groupings, individual irritations began to be
submerged in the group feelings, and this promoted intratribal tranquillity
but at the expense of intertribal peace. Peace was thus first enjoyed by
the in-group, or tribe, who always disliked and h-ted the out-group,
foreigners. Early man regarded it a virtue to shed alien b-ood.

But even this did not work at first. When the early chiefs would try to iron
out misunderstandings, they often found it necessary, at least once a year,
to permit the tribal stone fights. The clan would divide up into two groups
and engage in an all-day battle. And this for no other reason than just the
fun of it; they really enjoyed fighting.

-arfare persists because man is human, evo-ved from an animal, and all
animals are bellicose. Among the early causes of w-r were:

1. Hunger, which led to food raids. Scarcity of land has always brought
on wa-, and during these struggles the early peace tribes were practically
exterminated.

2. Woman scarcity an attempt to relieve a shortage of domestic help. Woman
stealing has always caused wa-.

3. Vanity the desire to exhibit tribal prowess. Superior groups would fight
to impose their mode of life upon inferior peoples.

4. Sl-ves need of recruits for the labor ranks.

5. Revenge was the motive for w-r when one tribe believed that a neighboring
tribe had caused the d-ath of a fellow tribesman. Mourning was continued
until a head was brought home. The w-r for vengeance was in good standing
right on down to comparatively modern times.

6. Recreation -ar was looked upon as recreation by the young men of these
early times. If no good and sufficient pretext for wa- arose, when peace
became oppressive, neighboring tribes were accustomed to go out in
semifriendly combat to engage in a foray as a holiday, to enjoy a sham 
battle.

7. Rel-gion the desire to make converts to the cult. The primitive religio-s
all sanctioned wa-. Only in recent times has re-igion begun to frown upon 
w-r.
The early priesthoods were, unfortunately, usually allied with the m-litary
power. One of the great peace moves of the ages has been the attempt to
separate ch-rch and state.

Always these olden tribes made w-r at the bidding of their g-ds, at the
behest of their chiefs or medi-ine men. The He-rews believed in such a
Go- of battles; and the narrative of their raid on the Midianites is a 
typical
recital of the atrocious cruelty of the ancient tribal wa-s; this assault, 
with
its slaughter of all the males and the later k-lling of all male children 
and all
women who were not virgins, would have done honor to the mores of a tribal
chieftain of two hundred thousand years ago. And all this was executed in 
the
name of the L-rd G-d of I-rael.

This is a narrative of the evo-ution of society the natural outworking of 
the
problems of the ra-es man working out his own destiny on earth. Such
atrocities are not instigated by Deity, notwithstanding the tendency of
man to place the responsibility on his -ods.

Mi-itary mercy has been slow in coming to mankind. Even when a woman,
Deborah, ruled the He-rews, the same wholesale cruelty persisted. Her
general in his victory over the gentiles caused all the host to fall upon
the sword; there was not one left.

Very early in the history of the r-ce, poi-oned weapons were used. All sorts
of mutilations were practiced. Saul did not hesitate to require one hundred
Philistine foreskins as the dowry David should pay for his daughter Michal.

Early wa-s were fought between tribes as a whole, but in later times, when
two individuals in different tribes had a dispute, instead of both tribes 
fighting,
the two disputants engaged in a duel. It also became a custom for two
armies to stake all on the outcome of a contest between a representative
chosen from each side, as in the instance of David and Goliath.

The first refinement of -ar was the taking of prisoners. Next, women were
exempted from hostilities, and then came the recognition of noncombatants.
Mi-itary castes and standing armies soon developed to keep pace with the
increasing complexity of combat. Such warriors were early prohibited from
associating with women, and women long ago ceased to fight, though they
have always fed and nursed the soldiers and urged them on to battle.

The practice of declaring -ar represented great progress. Such
declarations of intention to fight betokened the arrival of a sense of
fairness, and this was followed by the gradual development of the rules
of civilized -arfare. Very early it became the custom not to fight near
re-igious sites and, still later, not to fight on certain ho-y days. Next
came the general recognition of the right of asylum; poli-ical fugitives
received protection.

Thus did w-rfare gradually evo-ve from the primitive man hunt to the
somewhat more orderly system of the later-day civilized nations. But
only slowly does the social attitude of amity displace that of enmity.

2. The Social Value of W-r

In past ages a fierce -ar would institute social changes and facilitate the
adoption of new ideas such as would not have occurred naturally in ten
thousand years. The terrible price paid for these certain w-r advantages
was that society was temporarily thrown back into savagery; civilized
reason had to abdicate.
Wa- is strong medicine, very costly and most dangerous; while often
curative of certain social disorders, it sometimes ki-ls the patient,
destroys the society.

The constant necessity for national defense creates many new and advanced
social adjustments. Society, today, enjoys the benefit of a long list of 
useful
innovations which were at first wholly mi-itary and is even indebted to w-r 
for
the dance, one of the early forms of which was a mi-itary drill.

Wa- has had a social value to past civilizations because it:

1. Imposed discipline, enforced co-operation.

2. Put a premium on fortitude and courage.

3. Fostered and solidified natio-alism.

4. Destroyed weak and unfit peoples.

5. Dissolved the illusion of primitive equality and selectively stratified
society.

Wa- has had a certain evo-utionary and selective value, but like slav-ry, it
must sometime be abandoned as civilization slowly advances. Olden w-rs
promoted travel and cultural intercourse; these ends are now better served 
by
modern methods of transport and communication. Olden w-rs strengthened
nations, but modern struggles disrupt civilized culture. Ancient w-rfare
resulted in the decimation of inferior peoples; the net result of modern
conflict is the selective destruction of the best human stocks. Early wa-s
promoted organization and efficiency, but these have now become the aims
of modern industry.

Part 2.

John Winston.  johnfw@mlode.com