‘The Case Against Peace’: Elites Manipulating Domestic Society With War
By Stuart J. Hooper
Global Research
June 28, 2016
It is understandable why elites would think this way, but it does not stand up to scrutiny and exposes humanity to untold dangers.
Stephen Walt, a world famous professor of international relations, has presented an interesting ‘case against peace‘ that might explain some of the most recent trends in international affairs.
Walt presents an argument that essential says that a state of war allows for domestic social cohesion to occur, because:
When the wolf is at the door, domestic quarrels are put aside in order to deal with the more immediate danger.
George Simmel, a sociologist, is also quoted by Walt and proceeds to explain how, in his opinion, ‘peace time’ can lead to domestic unrest:
A group’s complete victory over its enemies is thus not always fortunate in a sociological sense. Victory lowers the energy which guarantees the unity of the group; and the dissolving forces, which are always at work, gain hold.
Walt explores the work of another political scientist, Michael Desch, who said:
The cold war was the ‘perfect’ type of threat. It never escalated to a major war … although it was serious enough to be a unifying factor.
Walt acknowledges that the 9/11 attacks created a similar unifying atmosphere, yet notes that it quickly collapsed after the true reality of the threat turned out to be based upon lies:
The threat from al Qaeda and its ilk is just not serious enough to galvanize the national unity that a genuine international rivalry produces.
Domestic terrorism continues to shock us, but it’s hard to rally the nation over the long term when the risk of dying in a terrorist incident is still about 1 chance in 4 million each year.
Walt concludes with this:
Reducing external dangers turns out to have a downside: The less threatened we are by the outside world, the more prone we are to ugly quarrels at home. Even worse, peace may even contain the seeds of its own destruction.
The Rest…HERE
