I bet you will be as surprised as I was when you read John Horgan’s The End of War. He argues convincingly that war is not an innate part of human existence, and that the end of war is not only possible, but inevitable. War is, in fact, a cultural contageon. Horgan gives examples of other cultural practices that seemed intractable only a few centuries or decades ago like slavery, torture, racism, corporal punishment, subjugation of women etc., that we now view as wrong and even unthinkable (even if these things persist in isolation, they are no longer considered acceptable or inevitable cultural values.) War is like this. When people change their minds and stop rationalizing the existence of war, war will end.

posted Jan 12, 2013 at 11:41AM

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