War! Is it Really Good for Us?
A review of a review - original piece below
I read some other reviews too. Interesting to take that position with all the anti-war sentiment around.
What struck me the most in the review was that Ian Morris has overlooked an obvious third possibility in his poke at the 40th President of the United States, "I'm from the government and I'm here to kill you.” After all, Reagan’s work helped to end the decades-long enslavement of East Europe by the Soviet communists.
The significance being that with Stalin’s rise to power in 1924, socialism as envisioned by Marx and even Lenin, came to an end. Millions either were imprisoned or disappeared during the period of collectivization. In terms of current events, the Great Purge (1936-1939) in which hundreds of thousands were executed, took place in the Ukraine. Yes, the government indeed was there to kill you.
We’re both old enough to remember the “Iron Curtain,” as Winston Churchill called it, cutting off Soviet controlled nations from west, and epitomized by the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
I haven’t read the book yet, but it strikes me that there is something fundamentally wrong with Morris using Reagan’s quote, "Hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help,” in association with the implication that Reagan “kicked off today’s anti-government hysteria,” especially when you consider that the book is about war.
Reagan was a hawk. You’ll recall that the Iran hostages were freed when Reagan came to office, because they knew that they would soon be confronted by US armed forces in a much different manner then occurred when Carter tried to free the hostages. This was exemplified by his putting armed forces into Grenada after the overthrow and execution of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop by communist rebels.
For all his seemingly intellectual prowess, Ian Morris seems to have somehow missed the fact that Reagan’s comments where about the economic burdens that big government was putting on US citizens, the endless programs, bureaucracy, entitlements, etc., and not the military.
As for anti-government hysteria, there was plenty of that going around with all those Vietnam War demonstrations and protests that swept the nation some 15 years before Reagan came to office. In fact, what I’ve noticed is that the political party who holds the Presidency, is constantly being assailed by the party that’s out of office.
gfs / facebook / 4-30-2014
What struck me the most in the review was that Ian Morris has overlooked an obvious third possibility in his poke at the 40th President of the United States, "I'm from the government and I'm here to kill you.” After all, Reagan’s work helped to end the decades-long enslavement of East Europe by the Soviet communists.
The significance being that with Stalin’s rise to power in 1924, socialism as envisioned by Marx and even Lenin, came to an end. Millions either were imprisoned or disappeared during the period of collectivization. In terms of current events, the Great Purge (1936-1939) in which hundreds of thousands were executed, took place in the Ukraine. Yes, the government indeed was there to kill you.
We’re both old enough to remember the “Iron Curtain,” as Winston Churchill called it, cutting off Soviet controlled nations from west, and epitomized by the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
I haven’t read the book yet, but it strikes me that there is something fundamentally wrong with Morris using Reagan’s quote, "Hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help,” in association with the implication that Reagan “kicked off today’s anti-government hysteria,” especially when you consider that the book is about war.
Reagan was a hawk. You’ll recall that the Iran hostages were freed when Reagan came to office, because they knew that they would soon be confronted by US armed forces in a much different manner then occurred when Carter tried to free the hostages. This was exemplified by his putting armed forces into Grenada after the overthrow and execution of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop by communist rebels.
For all his seemingly intellectual prowess, Ian Morris seems to have somehow missed the fact that Reagan’s comments where about the economic burdens that big government was putting on US citizens, the endless programs, bureaucracy, entitlements, etc., and not the military.
As for anti-government hysteria, there was plenty of that going around with all those Vietnam War demonstrations and protests that swept the nation some 15 years before Reagan came to office. In fact, what I’ve noticed is that the political party who holds the Presidency, is constantly being assailed by the party that’s out of office.
gfs / facebook / 4-30-2014
War! Is it Really Good for Us? By Phil Trupp
"The day for progress by force has passed," wrote historian Norman Angell in 1910. War, he declared, "has put itself out of business."
His message was haile...d by world leaders. But four years later, these same politicians started World War I. By 1918, they had killed 15 million people. In 1945, the death toll from two world wars exceeded 100 million.
Despite these grisly statistics, Ian Morris, who teaches classics, history and archaeology at Standford, has put a positive spin on the bloodshed in a new book, "War! What is it Good For?"
"When looking upon the long run of history," writes Morris, "it becomes clear that through 10,000 years of conflict, humanity has created larger, more organized societies that have greatly reduced the risk that their members will die violently. These better organized societies also have created the conditions for higher living standards and economic growth. War has not only made us safer, but richer, too."
Morris takes us back to the Stone Age to make his point. Populations were tiny, but the steady drip of "low-level killing," without official restraints, suggests that 20 percent of Stone Age people died at the hands of their peers.
Since 1914, we have killed about 200 million through wars and civil strife. But 10 billion lives have been lived, and today the risk of violent death has fallen to 0.7 percent. This progress, writes Morris, is due to the growth and sophistication of governments.
He takes a poke at Ronald Reagan, who famously kicked off today's anti-government hysteria. Reagan said the most dangerous words in the English language are, "Hi, I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Morris counters that in reality the 10 scariest words are, "There is no government and I'm here to kill you!"