War Is a Necessary Evil Essay

War is the law of life and eternal peace a dream, Life means struggle and struggle is another name for war. A land of eternal peace would be a land of sloth, inactivity and ennui_ like the world of the Lotos-Eaters. An empty mind is the Devil’s workshop and such a world would soon become a hot-bed of mutual bickering and jealousies, family feuds such as prevail among the savages. For the natural process of evolution which is going on in the world, for a just struggle for existence, we would have constant fights, ugly quarrels about trifles and an atmosphere of jealousy and ill-will.

Was has been in existence ever since the world began. In spite of its frequent recurrence, mankind has managed to get along. In fact, it has always been in periods of struggle that man made his advance in social, political and economic sphere. War typified and embodies physically that aspect of battle which belongs to all life, in a world whose method is a meeting and wrestling of forces which progress by mutual destruction.

That world may progress, war is essential. A land of eternal peace would be a land of stagnation. The blessings that peace confers on a land depend for their usefulness on war. “ All the pure and noble arts of peace”,  says Ruskin, “are founded on war; no great art ever yet rose on earth, but among a nation of soldiers. There is no art among an agricultural people, if it remains at peace. There is no great art possible to a nation but that which is based on battle. This is supported by the history of the rise, progress and decline of art in Egypt,Greece and Rome. The best art was, of course, that of Greece, where it flourished under the aegis of war, as is evident from the representations of Greek gods and goddesses in warrior shapes.” This art that was born in war died when there followed a long interval of peace in Europe.

Of course, war has its destructive side, and some warfare conducted for plunder, aggrandizement, or on account of the intoxication of military power. Such wars cannot be too highly condemned. The creative or foundational war”, according to Ruskin, “is that in which the natural restlessness and love of contest among men are disciplined into the aggressive conquest of surrounding evil; and which the natural instincts of self-defence are sanctified be the nobleness of the institutions and purity of the households which they are appointed to defend. To such war as this all men are born; in such war as this any man may happily die; and forth from such war as this have risen, throughout the extent of past ages, all the highest sanctities and virtues of humanity.”

So long as man is imperfect_ and he will remain so ‘this side of the tomb’_ he must struggle and suffer until perfection is achieved. No sooner he stops the struggle than his progress towards perfection becomes stationary. Peace, no doubt, we all desire, but not the peace enjoyed by the Lotos-Eaters. We cannot subscribe to their opinion:

                   “What pleasure can we have

                   To war with evil? Is there any peace

                  In ever climbing up the climbing wave?

                  All things have rest, and ripen towards the grave

                  In silence; ripen, fall and cease:

                Give us long rest or death, or dreadful ease.

Such a dream is surely not a beautiful dream. The world is full of struggles. One thing lives on another: one conflicts with another in the process of evolving and perfecting forms. Perfect peace is only an empty dream. We find “the flaw in the territorial scheme.” In such a world man is thrown to fulfil his part_ to struggle and to become perfect in body and soul.

WHAT IS WAR?

It is the demon of barbarity which, given up all pretence, emerges with unconcealed fangs and teeth, ready to tear up the world and spread devastation. From one end to the other, the poisonous fumes of war defile the atmosphere. This plague of persecution raises its head to create havoc and to desecrate man. War rouses the animal lust in man. He becomes despotic and bureaucratic. War_ the devastator of millions of innocent human being_ is the merciless monster of human history. Why should it be fought after all, it is difficult to answer. In spite of the efforts of the Language of Nations, World War of 1939-1945 could not be avoided. From the earliest days history abounds in wars, big or small.