Thursday, September 7, 2017

War

The Broken Body Fallacy


This is really worth some thought:
Ian Morris from Stanford, in his recent book War: What Is It Good For? has argued for the utility of war. The bigger the war, the better things become in the long run. War gives the state the power to make their citizens’ lives safer and richer. This is strange stuff that could come only from a university. "The utility of massive, random death."
 
Scheidel has a book called The Great Leveler which is pleased to inform us that income inequality is attainable only through war, savage revolution, disease periods and the implosion of the State. I guess once you start writing, you just can't stop. But you can stop. Look at this: “Whether communism’s sacrifice,” Scheidel writes, “of a hundred million lives bought anything of value is well beyond the scope of this study to contemplate.” Apparently, what you stop at is judgment.

Scheidel is also from Stanford; maybe there is something in the water.

“Whether communism’s sacrifice of a hundred million lives bought anything of value is well beyond the scope of this study to contemplate.” It is hard to believe someone wrote that--and got it past an editor. As an indicator of a political mindset, it should be memorized by everyone and never forgotten.

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