be taken into account in any transition plan. For the time being, the Department
of Defense appears to have recognized such factors, as has been demonstrated
by the planning under way by the Rand Corporation to cope with the breakdown
in the ecological balance anticipated after a thermonuclear war. The Department
has also begun to stockpile birds, for example, against the expected proliferation
of radiation-resistant insects, etc.
CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC
The declared order of values in modern societies gives a high place to the so-
called "creative" activities, and an even higher one to those associated with the
advance of scientific knowledge. Widely held social values can be translated
into political equivalents, which in turn may bear on the nature of a transition to
peace. The attitudes of those who hold these values must be taken into account
in the planning of the transition. The dependence, therefore, of cultural and
scientific achievement on the war system would be an important consideration
in a transition plan even is such achievement had no inherently necessary social
function.
Of all the countless dichotomies invented by scholars to account for the major
differences in art styles and cycles, only one has been consistently unambiguous
in its application to a variety of forms and cultures. However it may be
verbalized, the basic distinction is this: Is the work war-oriented or is it not?
Among primitive peoples, the war dance is the most important art form.
Elsewhere, literature, music, painting, sculpture, and architecture that has won
lasting acceptance has invariably dealt with a theme of war, expressly or
implicitly, and has expressed the centricity of war to society. The war in
question may be national conflict, as in Shakespeare plays, Beethoven's music,
or Goya's paintings, or it may be reflected in the form of religious, social, or
moral struggle, as in the work of Dante, Rembrandt, and Bach. Art that cannot
be classified as war-oriented is usually described as "sterile," "decadent," and so
on. Application of the "war standard" to works of art may often leave room for
debate in individual cases, but there is no question of its role as the fundamental
determinant of cultural values. Aesthetic and moral standards have a common
anthropological origin, in the exaltation of bravery, the willingness to kill and
risk death in tribal warfare.
It is also instructive to note that the character of a society's culture has borne a
close relationship to its war-making potential, in the context of its times. It is no
accident that the current "cultural explosion" in the United States is taking place
during an era marked by an unusually rapid advance in weaponry. This
relationship is more generally recognized than the literature on the subject
of Defense appears to have recognized such factors, as has been demonstrated
by the planning under way by the Rand Corporation to cope with the breakdown
in the ecological balance anticipated after a thermonuclear war. The Department
has also begun to stockpile birds, for example, against the expected proliferation
of radiation-resistant insects, etc.
CULTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC
The declared order of values in modern societies gives a high place to the so-
called "creative" activities, and an even higher one to those associated with the
advance of scientific knowledge. Widely held social values can be translated
into political equivalents, which in turn may bear on the nature of a transition to
peace. The attitudes of those who hold these values must be taken into account
in the planning of the transition. The dependence, therefore, of cultural and
scientific achievement on the war system would be an important consideration
in a transition plan even is such achievement had no inherently necessary social
function.
Of all the countless dichotomies invented by scholars to account for the major
differences in art styles and cycles, only one has been consistently unambiguous
in its application to a variety of forms and cultures. However it may be
verbalized, the basic distinction is this: Is the work war-oriented or is it not?
Among primitive peoples, the war dance is the most important art form.
Elsewhere, literature, music, painting, sculpture, and architecture that has won
lasting acceptance has invariably dealt with a theme of war, expressly or
implicitly, and has expressed the centricity of war to society. The war in
question may be national conflict, as in Shakespeare plays, Beethoven's music,
or Goya's paintings, or it may be reflected in the form of religious, social, or
moral struggle, as in the work of Dante, Rembrandt, and Bach. Art that cannot
be classified as war-oriented is usually described as "sterile," "decadent," and so
on. Application of the "war standard" to works of art may often leave room for
debate in individual cases, but there is no question of its role as the fundamental
determinant of cultural values. Aesthetic and moral standards have a common
anthropological origin, in the exaltation of bravery, the willingness to kill and
risk death in tribal warfare.
It is also instructive to note that the character of a society's culture has borne a
close relationship to its war-making potential, in the context of its times. It is no
accident that the current "cultural explosion" in the United States is taking place
during an era marked by an unusually rapid advance in weaponry. This
relationship is more generally recognized than the literature on the subject
