“War is the father of all and the king of all; and some he has made gods and some men, some bond and some free.”
So said the ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus. In his essay this week, Santiago Ramos says the opposite: “… war is a necessary evil; it is not what preserves the great achievements of the human race. War threatens those achievements, and we are lucky that more has not been destroyed already.” Santiago believes that pro-war voices which emerged during the recent Israel-Iran kerfuffle are expressing something more than the need to fight wars for self-defense and world order. They are voices which celebrate war as an essential, creative activity in history.
Damir Marusic shares Santiago’s distrust of those pro-war voices. But he thinks Santiago goes too far in a utopian, kumbaya direction. War, Damir says, will always be part of the human condition. It is folly to believe that human beings will progress enough to one day beat their swords into plowshares forever. In response, Santiago accuses Damir of believing in original sin but without the possibility of grace. Damir denies this and clarifies this position: “I want no heroes among human beings.”
This rollicking debate reaches a climax in our bonus section for paid subscribers. Damir discusses Iranian incentives after the recent American bombing and ponders the possibility of a future war. He challenges Santiago to consider Trump’s oft-repeated slogan, “Peace through strength.”
Also in the bonus section: How much moralizing did Santiago do in his essay? the two men wonder. Santiago explains what he means by “a weird conscience-element in the air.” Why didn’t Venice get destroyed? Why did Dresden get destroyed? Can you disentangle justice from sovereignty? Can you have morality without God? Damir explains to Santiago why he (Santiago) needs to talk more about Jesus. Santiago tells Damir the story of the Catonsville Nine.
Required Reading:
* Santiago Ramos, “War Will Not Save ‘the West’ ” (WoC).
* Damir Marusic, “Is Israel’s Attack on Iran Legal?” (WoC).
* Josep Borrell’s “Garden v. Jungle” metaphor (Euronews).
* David Brooks, “I Detest Netanyahu, but on Some Things He’s Actually Right” (New York Times).
* Edward Luttwak interview in Asylum magazine (Wayback Machine).
* Heraclitus fragment about war (Wikisource).
* “Heraclitus” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
* “Russia fired new ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says” (Reuters).
* “The 10 greatest controversies of Winston Churchill's career” (BBC).
* Tim Bouverie, Allies at War: How the Struggles Between the Allied Powers Shaped the War and the World (Amazon).
* Daniel Berrigan, SJ, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Amazon).
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