War is the father of all things.
Name | of Ephesus Heraclitus | Life | 540 - 480 BC | Country | Greece | Category | Realism | Wikipedia | >> |
What an abominable statement! Can Heraclitus really mean that war is the father of all good things? War is horrible. It brings death to men, destruction to things and rape to women. No, no, it is empathy, generosity and love that has created a better world!
If man is created in the image of a wise God, why should he use warfare as an instrument of progress? But if man is little but that drop of water, with some protein yeast added, wouldn't Heraclitus's statement sound more true?
The tension between the Weltanschauung of Moses and that of Thales is well taught by Heraclitus. We find it in all history ever since. Is man a wise and omniscient planner, as social engineers and socialists tend to think? Or is it only the ugliness of war or the mollified form of warfare that we now call free market competition that brings progress to humanity?
In Paradise man didn't need to work. Nature was rich. We could afford to be lazy. When we were driven out of Eden, we lost our cornucopia. We were sentenced to "eat our bread by the sweat of our brow". We didn't like that. We still hoped for lazy luxury living.
Only serious challenges to our survival could shake us out of that lethargy. Only when we wanted to grab the land of our neighbors, or feared they would grab ours, did we work hard to improve our weapons of attack or instruments of defense.
Man, human nature, has not changed during the latest three millennia. The only thing that changes, that brings progress, are our ever-improved instruments. And, indeed, almost all instrumental improvements are the result of wars. That is as true of the airplanes that can bring atomic bombs to Hiroshima, central bankers to Washington, or tourists to Capri. It is as true as it is of the transformation that has changed the first primitive bands of young hunters who defended their territory - as even chimps do - into the armies of Alexander the Great or Napoleon and, now, into the Pentagon or global multinational companies engaged in warlike competition for markets.
Heraclitus might be right. Warfare may be the father of at least most of the things that have brought us peaceful progress, longer lives and richer living.
So much is easy to understand.
"So, you love warfare! So, you want to start a new world war with atomic weapons! You are truly bad, almost a devil!" That is the instinctive reaction of most people who rarely exit the "here and now".
This is the problem of "analytical versus normative statements". Much analysis may be equally true as hateful. You certainly don't like getting to know that a cancer tumor is growing in you. But for curing it, it may be useful.
A connected problem is called "the law of unintended consequences".
Man may intensely desire to do something good. But, like the Russian communists of the early 20th century, he may end up a complete failure.
Good intentions will often lead to bad results. Evil intentions may have good effects, especially for the victorious ones.
When he looked upon history, Heraclitus found that it was the evil intentions behind warfare that brought us our progress and, as he realistically continues, "that has appointed some gods, and others, humans, and made some slaves, while others free".
Normatively it sounds ugly! But is it, or is it not, analytically true? |