OXYMORON - War makes Peace [View all]

[packman]

From the article :

" War has produced bigger societies, ruled by stronger governments, which have imposed peace and created the preconditions for prosperity. Ten thousand years ago, there were only about 6 million people on earth. On average they lived about 30 years and supported themselves on the equivalent of less than two modern American dollars per day. Now there are more than a thousand times as many of us (7 billion, in fact), living more than twice as long (the global average is 67 years), and earning more than a dozen times as much (today the global average is $25 per day)."

and:

"For most of our time on earth, we have been aggressive, violent animals, because aggression and violence have paid off. But in the 10,000 years since we invented productive war, we have evolved culturally to become less violent—because that pays off even better"



Interesting article, author makes some cold observations about the "good" results of war. Of course, if viewed objectively the author is right in some of his opinions (10 to 20% of earth's Stone Age population destroyed in warfare) but I wonder how many scientists, artists, philosophers, teachers were killed in war.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/04/the-slaughter-bench-of-history/360534/