jreelawg said:
The problem with war philosophies like Tsun Tsu, is that war is hell, and most people don't want to live in a constant state of war. Especially under a philosophy where lying, being sneaky, and stabbing in the back is the best method.
Most people come out of the military with the belief instilled into them, that there is no choice in the matter, war is the way of the world, and always will be.
But what you see also, is an escalation coming from both sides.
For example, if you are fighting an enemy in combat, and your best friends all die in front of you at the hand of the enemy. You might come out of the situation with the view that piece is not good enough, it doesn't accommodate the revenge you lust for.
And on the other side, a man may be kneeling beside the body parts of his child thinking the same thing, peace is not good enough without revenge.
In the end, you have a whole lot of people just out to destroy each other.
Then you have the people who realize the faults and confusions of the individual, and take the stance they cannot learn. They say the only way to peace is though war and tyranny, or through fascism. To advance this method, they egg on the confused individuals and perpetuate their faults and weakness. Kind of like the sith lord would. And meanwhile, the truths and strengths of human nature take a back seat in a world that chooses to make them irrelevant.
A very important post, and I'll make a first comment:
(a) war is hell, and (b) most people don't want to live in a constant state of war.
Both (a) and (b) correct. That is why MOST people will do their best not to think of war, even if it occurs right in the neighbourhood. The stories of the baffling "normality of life" in war-torn London or other area are endless.
This unwillingness of reflecting upon war is a source of strength needed to build up a humane, civil society again/keep it going.
That is why we should be DEEPLY troubled about wide-spread ideologies romantizing/gloryfying, or, even, the worst of all, SANCTIFYING war, since this mentality attacks the very core of our basic humanity. People imbibed&indoctrinated on such ideologies are unwittingly slipping into collective psychopathy.
This is not mere hypothesizing:
1. The gory rituals of the Aztecs, their murderous ravagings of subject tribes is one such example.
2. We have preserved thousands of lines of Viking poetry; the nobility in those societies developed a death cult, and praised&practised it.
One such ritual in the Wotan worship was "catching the babe on the spear-edge":
In this, at some village they had just razed, the Vikings would place themselves in a closed ring with their spears upright.
Then a villager child, two years old or so, was thrown into the air above the ring.
The man whose spear skewered the child was granted the right to rape the child's mother.
One Viking was tauntingly nick-named "kiddie-lover" by his comrades, because he always refused to take part in that particular ritual.
