War and Violence

A recent Talk of the Nation show on NPR, war-and-violence-on-the-decline-in-modern-times, spoke of fewer being killed in wars in the most recent decade and century:

 “.. Joshua Goldstein argues that despite Iraq and Afghanistan, Congo and Sudan, the past 10 years have seen fewer war deaths than any decade in the past 100 years. And Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker goes even further. We may be living in the most peaceful period in the history of our species. Really? And if so, why?”

This is great news! Maybe the world, in some ways, is very much on the right track. But there should be no mystery concerning this trend. I was surprised the experts, Goldstein and Pinker, did not consider the fundamental driving forces behind war when asked why this was happening.

To me the reason is quite clear – the things of most value in today’s world are of the type that cannot be gained through conventional war and killing.

The essence of politics is pursuing, maintaining and wielding power. And our wars have almost always been politically motivated - two sides fighting each other for control and power over resources such as food (berry patches and hunting territory if you go way back), land, energy, minerals and labor. Today, though, there are other resources that we deem more valuable, things that are more impactful to our power - engineering capability, well trained and educated workforces, efficient and robust economies, high tech manufacturing capability, high tech energy extraction and transport, modern agricultural methods and practices, communications and energy infrastructures, access to information. These things are for the most part not winnable through war.  To the contrary, they tend to be destroyed by war.

today's ditty:   Edwin Starr - War