On War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning
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On War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning
As human civilization leaps forward into the twentieth century, the avatars of modernity cheerfully celebrate how far we have progressed from our barbarous past. Why then, have the most atrocious, repugnant acts of violence and cruelty occurred in the past century? Chris Hedges, in his book War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, discusses the forces that mobilize people to war, specifically the popular ideas about warfare and the agenda of nationalism. He reveals these two concepts to be nothing more than elaborate lies or "myths", which can motivate people to commit horrible crimes on humanity. Hedges also examines the effect of war on those involved, making the rather disconcerting argument that war offers us a sense of meaning which is more profound and genuine than can be achieved in peacetime society. He comes to the conclusion that only love can offer the sense of meaning given by war in a manner that is beneficial to humanity.
Hedges conceives of the "myth of war", the mythic reality perpetuated in wartime in which events and things are imbued with meaning they do not have. We see ourselves as the paradigm of all that is good, in opposition to our enemies who are demonized to the point of inhumanity. The myth of war creates a Manichaean world of absolute good and evil. The only solution to this conflict is force - if one embraces the myth of war, he embraces the idea that violence is absolutely necessary in the ultimate fight against evil, the battle to "vanquish darkness...