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IN THE PAST, a fierce war would bring about social changes and facilitate the adoption of new ideas, such as would not have occurred naturally in ten thousand years. But the terrible price paid for these certain advantages was that society was temporarily thrown back into savagery; civilized reason had to abdicate. War is strong medicine, incredibly costly and extremely dangerous; and while often curative of a number of social disorders, it can often kill the patient and destroy the society.
The constant necessity for national defense creates many new and advanced social adjustments, and the society of today enjoys the benefit of a long list of useful innovations, which were at first wholly military. War has had a social value to past civilizations because it:
- 1. Imposed discipline on men, enforced cooperation.
- 2. Put a premium on fortitude and courage.
- 3. Fostered and solidified nationalism.
- 4. Destroyed weak and unfit peoples.
- 5. Dissolved the illusion of primitive equality and selectively stratified society.
War has always had a certain evolutionary value in the past, but like slavery, it must at some point be abandoned as civilization slowly advances. Past world wars literally forced us to travel and promoted cultural intercourse; but these ends are now better served by modern transportation and communication. Olden wars strengthened nations, but modern wars disrupt all civilized culture. Ancient warfare resulted in the decimation of inferior peoples; but the net result of modern conflict is the selective destruction of the very best human stocks. Early wars promoted organization and efficiency, but these have become the obsessions of modern industry.
During past ages, war was a social ferment which pushed civilization forward; but this result is now better attained by ambition, and invention. Ancient warfare supported the concept of a God of battles, but modern man has been told that God is love.
War has served many valuable purposes in the past; it has been an indispensable scaffolding in the building of civilization. but it is now culturally bankrupt— incapable of producing any dividends of social gain in any way commensurate with the terrible losses it produces.
Physicians once believed in bloodletting as a cure for many diseases, but they have since discovered better remedies. Likewise must the international bloodletting of war give place to more intelligent methods for curing the ills of even backward nations.
The nations of our planet— Urantia— have long been engaged in the gigantic struggle between nationalistic militarism and industrialism. In many ways this conflict is analogous to the age-long struggle between the first herder-hunters and the farmers of land. But if industrialism is to triumph over militarism, it must avoid the dangers which beset it. The perils of corporate industry are:
1. The strong drift toward materialism, spiritual blindness.
2. The worship of wealth-power, value distortion.
3. The vices of luxury, cultural immaturity.
4. The increasing dangers of indolence, service insensitivity.
5. The growth of undesirable racial softness, biologic deterioration.
6. The threat of standardized industrial slavery, personality stagnation.
Labor is ennobling but drudgery is benumbing.
Militarism is autocratic and cruel— savage. It does promote social organization among the conquerors, but it disintegrates the vanquished. Industrialism is more civilized and should be so carried on as to promote initiative and to encourage individualism. Society should in every way possible foster originality.
We should not make the mistake of glorifying war; rather should we discern what it’s done for society so that we may the more accurately visualize what its substitutes must provide if we would continue the advancement of our civilization. And if such adequate substitutes are not provided, then we can be sure that war will continue; maybe even “a hundred years.”
We will never accept peace as a normal mode of living until we have been thoroughly and repeatedly convinced that peace is best for our material welfare; and until our society wisely provides peaceful substitutes for the gratification of our inherent tendency periodically to let loose a collective drive designed to liberate our accumulating emotions and energies born of the self-preservation reactions of our species.
War might some day be honored as the school of experience which compelled a race of arrogant individualists to submit themselves to highly concentrated authority— a chief executive. Brutal and savage old-fashioned war may have selected the innately great men for leadership, but modern war no longer does this. The leaders our society must now turn to are the conquests of peace: industry; science; and social achievement. Fortunately, that choice has never been clearer.
