The existence of an accepted external menace, then, is essential to social
cohesiveness as well as to the acceptance of political authority. The menace
must be believable, it must be of a magnitude consistent with the complexity of
the society threatened, and it must appear, at least, to affect the entire society.
ECOLOGICAL
Men, like all other animals, is subject to the continuing process of adapting to
the limitations of his environment. But the principal mechanism he has utilized
for this purpose is unique among living creatures. To forestall the inevitable
historical cycles of inadequate food supply, post-Neolithic man destroys surplus
members of his own species by organized warfare.
Ethologists have often observed that the organized slaughter of members of
their own species is virtually unknown among other animals. Man's special
propensity to kill his own kind (shared to a limited degree with rats) may be
attributed to his inability to adapt anachronistic patterns of survival (like
primitive hunting) to his development of "civilizations" in which these patterns
cannot be effectively sublimated. It may be attributed to other causes that have
been suggested, such as a maladapted "territorial instinct," etc. Nevertheless, it
exists and its social expression in war constitutes a biological control of his
relationship to his natural environment that is peculiar to man alone.
War has served to help assure the survival of the human species. But as an
evolutionary device to improve it, war is almost unbelievably inefficient. With
few exceptions, the selective processes of other living creatures promote both
specific survival and genetic improvement. When a conventionally adaptive
animal faces one of its periodic crises of insufficiency, it is the "inferior"
members of the species that normally disappear. An animal's social response to
such a crisis may take the form of a mass migration, during which the weak fall
by the wayside. Or it may follow the dramatic and more efficient pattern of
lemming societies, in which the weaker members voluntarily disperse, leaving
available food supplies for the stronger. In either case, the strong survive and
the weak fall. In human societies, those who fight and die in wars for survival
are in general its biologically stronger members. This is natural selection in
reverse.
The regressive genetic effort of war has been often noted and equally often
deplored, even when it confuses biological and cultural factors. The
disproportionate loss of the biologically stronger remains inherent in traditional
warfare. It serves to underscore the fact that survival of the species, rather than
cohesiveness as well as to the acceptance of political authority. The menace
must be believable, it must be of a magnitude consistent with the complexity of
the society threatened, and it must appear, at least, to affect the entire society.
ECOLOGICAL
Men, like all other animals, is subject to the continuing process of adapting to
the limitations of his environment. But the principal mechanism he has utilized
for this purpose is unique among living creatures. To forestall the inevitable
historical cycles of inadequate food supply, post-Neolithic man destroys surplus
members of his own species by organized warfare.
Ethologists have often observed that the organized slaughter of members of
their own species is virtually unknown among other animals. Man's special
propensity to kill his own kind (shared to a limited degree with rats) may be
attributed to his inability to adapt anachronistic patterns of survival (like
primitive hunting) to his development of "civilizations" in which these patterns
cannot be effectively sublimated. It may be attributed to other causes that have
been suggested, such as a maladapted "territorial instinct," etc. Nevertheless, it
exists and its social expression in war constitutes a biological control of his
relationship to his natural environment that is peculiar to man alone.
War has served to help assure the survival of the human species. But as an
evolutionary device to improve it, war is almost unbelievably inefficient. With
few exceptions, the selective processes of other living creatures promote both
specific survival and genetic improvement. When a conventionally adaptive
animal faces one of its periodic crises of insufficiency, it is the "inferior"
members of the species that normally disappear. An animal's social response to
such a crisis may take the form of a mass migration, during which the weak fall
by the wayside. Or it may follow the dramatic and more efficient pattern of
lemming societies, in which the weaker members voluntarily disperse, leaving
available food supplies for the stronger. In either case, the strong survive and
the weak fall. In human societies, those who fight and die in wars for survival
are in general its biologically stronger members. This is natural selection in
reverse.
The regressive genetic effort of war has been often noted and equally often
deplored, even when it confuses biological and cultural factors. The
disproportionate loss of the biologically stronger remains inherent in traditional
warfare. It serves to underscore the fact that survival of the species, rather than
