Mars and Eros

Reflecting on his experiences as a soldier in W.W. II, Glenn Gray wrote:*

How deeply is this impulse to destroy rooted and persistent in human nature? Are the imaginative visions of Empedocles and Freud true in conceiving that the destructive element in man and nature is as strong and recurrent as the conserving, erotic element? Or can our delight in destruction be channeled into other activities than he traditional one of warfare? We are not far advanced on the way to these answers. We do not know whether a peaceful society can be made attractive enough to wean men away from the appeals of battle. Today we are seeking to make war so horrible that men will be frightened away from it. But this is hardly likely to be more fruitful in the future than it has been in the past.

Gray then, somewhat naively, speculated that: More productive will certainly be our efforts to eliminate the social, economic, and political injustices that are always the immediate occasion of hostilities. Even then, we shall be confronted with the spiritual emptiness and inner hunger that impel many men toward combat.

He then soberly noted that: Our society has not begun to wrestle with this problem of how to provide fulfillment to human life, to which war is so often an illusory path. (first written in 1959)

*Glenn Gray, The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle, University of Nebraska Press, 1998. pp. 57f.

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Since these wise words we have had our wars in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq and the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur, to mention only a few. Will we ever find an erotic passion greater than war for the future of our species?

Merle