War Prigs

Being in the midst of a history binge right now, I'm gradually reminded of the fact that, until fairly recently, nations treated warfare as general entertainment. The armies of Napoleon? What was their motivation for repeatedly attacking Russia and England other than it was something to do? The Spanish-American War seems to have fulfilled for the United States the same function as a good football rally. It's as though conquering territory was just a way to pass an afternoon. Also there was a masculinity factor—you just weren't a man until you'd stuck a bayonet through someone's face.

The First World War is the first example of Americans responding with "eh, let's keep out of this, shall we?" How Wilson eventually suckered the country into it I don't know, since we didn't stand to gain much by entering the fray. Yes, Germany was habitually firing torpedoes at our ships, but there were other ways around that than committing soldiers. Isolationism was again the predominant outlook in the early days of the Second World War, which all changed when the Pearl Harbor attack gave the public a thirst for revenge.

Since then the general attitude has been, if not pacifism, then at least a strong reluctance towards military involvement. Not by warhawk leaders, of course, but by the commonfolk. The ones who actually have to do the fighting. Seems to me that the introduction of radio and later television sapped a lot of the energy that once was expelled via warfare. As a culture we demand our movies and teevee shows chock full of violence. And, honestly, who in America doesn't enjoy a good twofisted bar brawl? Watch any two drunken buffed-up meatheads bump torsos on a Saturday night. Face it, we're a violent people on an individual level. But for some reason when we get into an international skirmish, young redblooded males aren't rushing the recruiting offices with the same vigor as they did during the Civil War. I'd like to think this indicates some form of moral evolution, but the pessimist in me suspects elsewise.