The Art of War

Today I explored the musée de l'Armée, a wonderful temple to organized violence and its role in French history. I had never really understood the concept of there being an art of war, but now it is clear that fighting can be raised to a very high level of art indeed. After the fall of Rome to nomadic hordes, the kingdoms that evolved existed solely on their ability in military prowess. The entire era from the 6th to the 18th Centuries was one long drawn out blood bath in which the successful waging of war was the justification for authority and the basis for all borders in Europe. In 1789 things evolved a bit when some people from Paris thought they had had enough of their Aristocracy so they marched on Versailles and toppled the Bourbon kings. As was rather natural, the other Elites of Europe got rather uncomfortable with this challenge to the established order and all descended on France to teach these uppity commoners a lesson. What then happened changed the nature of warfare. The French fought back by eventually ordering a levee en masse of all able bodied men and they were able to not only repel the invading armies but even expand their borders. This has been accepted as the birth of the modern state and nationalism. By getting every young man under arms and having them fight passionately for their country they proved this was vastly superior in its ability to kill lots of foreigners. The Prussians went one further (largely in response to the French) and created a mandatory conscription with a reserve force which greatly increased the number of people who could fight as well as a group of officers whose job it was to sit around and plan out as many possible wars as they could think of to prepare. This led to Europe mobilizing 74 million men for the ultimate art of war show- World War I. Not having had enough of it, they even did a sequel a few decades later. So as I walked around the Musee d'Armee and looked at all the memorabilia of this evolution of the French through war all I could think about was that this is their history. Violence is what has defined them culturally, and Europe and its progeny around the world have embraced killing on a scale that has dumbfounded and terrified the rest of the planet. Every other aspect of their culture is based upon this penchant for violence, and is indeed largely a byproduct of it. It's the only reason I can find why Westerners will over consume even if it means you have to conquer the whole planet to do so. If you disagree with this then imagine a Europe that never developed militarily... It's not that they invented warfare, they just raised it to the level of an art, and became obsessed with the medium. As always, some words from the Ages-

"Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of War." -Shakespeare

"We should not ask 'Why does an event like the Great War occur?' But rather, given our nature, 'Why does it not occur more often?' -Jorge Luis Borges

"War is organised murder, and nothing else." -Harry Patch (last surviving soldier to have fought in the trenches in WWI)