Over he past few weeks I've been reading the book, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, by Chris Hedges, a New York Times war correspondent. He talks through several major modern conflicts in this book, including WWI and the Falklands War.
One of the major threads in his work deals with conflict in the former Yugoslavia. He states that the conflict was manufactured by people who wished to become national leaders by exaggerating the ethnic differences between Bosnians, Croats, and Serbs, which he describes as being in fact minimal. In essence, Hedges is stating that the Yugoslav war created the very ethnic groups who fought in it, even as the leaders used ethnic rhetoric to motivate the continuation of the war. A cycle of cause and effect.
From an evolutionary perspective, what is your view of this take on the Yugoslav conflict? It is most commonly thought that war is caused by nationalism, but here, the author is definitely asserting that the ethinic groups in conflict are so similar as to be almost indistinguishable, and that even the languages they speak are so alike that the leaders who advocated the conflict needed to force the languages to evolve in order to make them actually different.
Do you think that war is caused by nationalism yourself, or do you think that perhaps nationalism is caused by war, and that war is simply the group proactively practicing the survival of the fittest? Do you think that the Orthodox and Muslim religions in the area may have more to do with it than the author seems to believe? Knowing what you know about the communist history of Yugoslavia, how do you think that the relationship between race and nationalism, and the philosophy of Karl Marx may have influenced the events in the former Yugoslavia?
Finally, do you believe that war truly "gives meaning", in the sense that there are things about people, national groups, and times in history which simply cannot be explained except in the context of humanity's wars?
I was in my early 20's when 9/11 occured, and I grant that character was still being shaped at that age. I would be different had there been no war, but I don't feel that there has really been a war which "gave me meaning" in any positive sense of the word.
You?
One of the major threads in his work deals with conflict in the former Yugoslavia. He states that the conflict was manufactured by people who wished to become national leaders by exaggerating the ethnic differences between Bosnians, Croats, and Serbs, which he describes as being in fact minimal. In essence, Hedges is stating that the Yugoslav war created the very ethnic groups who fought in it, even as the leaders used ethnic rhetoric to motivate the continuation of the war. A cycle of cause and effect.
From an evolutionary perspective, what is your view of this take on the Yugoslav conflict? It is most commonly thought that war is caused by nationalism, but here, the author is definitely asserting that the ethinic groups in conflict are so similar as to be almost indistinguishable, and that even the languages they speak are so alike that the leaders who advocated the conflict needed to force the languages to evolve in order to make them actually different.
Do you think that war is caused by nationalism yourself, or do you think that perhaps nationalism is caused by war, and that war is simply the group proactively practicing the survival of the fittest? Do you think that the Orthodox and Muslim religions in the area may have more to do with it than the author seems to believe? Knowing what you know about the communist history of Yugoslavia, how do you think that the relationship between race and nationalism, and the philosophy of Karl Marx may have influenced the events in the former Yugoslavia?
Finally, do you believe that war truly "gives meaning", in the sense that there are things about people, national groups, and times in history which simply cannot be explained except in the context of humanity's wars?
I was in my early 20's when 9/11 occured, and I grant that character was still being shaped at that age. I would be different had there been no war, but I don't feel that there has really been a war which "gave me meaning" in any positive sense of the word.
You?
