On the Seduction of War
The drama of vanquishing a loathsome enemy seems to activate the same neural circuitry in which lust resides.
There’s a funny Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove when the guys in the Pentagon realize that there is no stopping the imminent nuclear catastrophe, and they shift their focus to the question of how the human race will be reconstituted. Dr. Strangelove assures them that an elite group of men and women—with ten extremely nubile women for each man—could live at the bottom of a mineshaft and perform prodigious reproductive labor. Upon hearing this, the gloomy atmosphere lifts. Maybe the end of the world isn’t such a dreadful thing after all.
I’ve long suspected that war—the psychological and moral drama of killing a loathed enemy and exulting in the triumph of one’s superior strength—may activate the same neural circuitry as lust.
In my younger and more carefree days, I remember the experience of seeing a beautiful woman at a cocktail party and going into a trancelike state that seemed to shut off all critical thinking. Schopenhauer characterized this trancelike state as an expression of the Will (die Wille) that governs all living things to do nature’s bidding.
It seems to me that war has the same seductive power over people’s minds, which probably explains why war propagandists never change their script—i.e., the same drama always works in the way the mere sight of a beautiful girl always induces the same trancelike state in the mind of a man.
Reflecting on the evil of war, James Madison wrote the following:
In war, too, the discretionary power of the executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds are added to those of subduing the force of the people! No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
Man is a tribal animal that is always driven by the will to expand his tribe at the expense of others. I recently had a conversation with evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein in which he told me something I have long suspected—namely, that humanity is now suffering from a fatal "evolutionary mismatch" in which our archaic biological imperative to extend the power of our tribe at the expense of others is being equipped with ever more sophisticated weapons, with ever greater destructive capacity. Weinstein is gravely concerned that if we don’t learn to recognize this mismatch and make a conscious effort to counter it, we could face an extinction of our own making.
In my view, Trump has finally said to the Islamic Republic of Iran “ENOUGH ALREADY”!!!
Forty-seven years of the autocratic bullying & bluster of the mullahs, the ongoing threats & terror activities within the Middle East (& around the world), the irrational insistence on acquiring nuclear missile capability (that could eventually reach all of Europe & N America), not to mention an enduring commitment to the destruction of the Israeli state (along with all the Jews they can find & kill) reached a tipping point & Trump decided to use overwhelming U.S. military force to effect regime change in Iran.
Our forces have already (within the initial hours of the conflict) decapitated the Iranian government & are systematically destroying the stockpiles of ballistic missiles & remaining military units, primarily the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) throughout the country. This phase of the operation could take months unless the regime & its supporters willingly abdicate & allow for free & fair elections to restore a democratic government going forward.
This concerted military effort will continue until what’s left of the regime capitulates & surrenders its weapons. Otherwise, Trump has made clear that anyone loyal to the mullahs who does not submit to this directive will be hunted down & eliminated.
It was also made abundantly clear to Iranian leaders that the one non-negotiable agenda item was Iran’s continuing enrichment of uranium & its development of weapon systems (primarily ballistic missiles) to deliver them. After last summer’s “Midnight Hammer” operation, there should have been no confusion regarding our ‘a priori’ commitment to permanently halt Iranian pursuit of nuclear weapons. They ignored that VERY CLEAR signal & in that inaction, their ideological zealotry has cost them dearly.
The ultimate big winners here will be the citizens of Iran (now Persia again?) who want to live free of the oppressions of a brutally radical religious cult, if they are able to seize the day & reclaim their country from the Islamo-fascist tyranny that has infested the Middle East & influenced the geopolitics of the entire world for almost an entire half-century.
Trump finally decided that he alone could end that awful tyranny once & for all, and he had the courage & the audacity (not to mention the military capacity) to act decisively. And he had the cajones to give the order. Good for him.
It’s a new world now & aggressively troublesome regimes like the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer be tolerated, at least while Trump & his successors are in power in the U.S. That particular Sword of Damocles is no more.
History will ultimately be the judge. It was high time, in my view.
"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare".
So it's a shame that the USA has hardly enjoyed half a dozen years' peace in 250 years of independence. Almost every year a war - and every single one started by Washington.