Manse Everard reflects on the reign of Cyrus the Great. Periods of peace were possible but were gained at the expense of a great deal of fighting both with other civilized states and with barbarians. Peace, when gained, was prolonged by humane and tolerant governance.
Poul Anderson imagines periods of war and peace alternating into an indefinite future. However, our present experience seems to be that war will destroy us soon unless we end it now. That is not happening. The War of Judgment of Anderson's There Will Be Time but with no Maurai Federation afterwards? (Sf is indeed highly relevant.)
7 comments:
For some hope of ending war see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_peace_theory
In particular I like the book
"Never at War" by Spencer Weart.
Kaor, Jim!
And I remain extremely skeptical that permanent in a species as quarrelsome as mankind is possible.
Ad astra! Sean
Dang. I meant to write "...permanent PEACE in a species..."
Sean
War may destroy -civilization-. Not, however, the human race.
Yet as Einstein said, World War Four -would- be fought.
But with clubs and rocks for weapons.
War will continue as long as human beings are political animals; and that means as long as they're humans. Politics is about power, and violence is always the -ultimately- decisive means of political action.
I say this as the one prediction about the future I'm willing to make with absolute confidence.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And that is why I get so IMPATIENT with naive Utopians and their impossible dreams of a perfect society or eternal peace.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: humility is an intensely practical trait.
Most of what some people think about as "problems" aren't actually problems, because they have no "solution".
They're conditions of existence; the most you can do is manage them day to day and year to year.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Correct. Some "problems" can only be managed, not solved.
Ad astra! Sean
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