<nettime> morality of war

[akademie@solitude.s.shuttle.de (calin dan)]

The morality of war. Is war an important issue 4 the perception of history?
Humanity thinks of itself in terms of achievement. Achievement goes
together with competition, and from a level of stress on competition means
war. The stress can be induced by increases/decreases in various factors:
amounts of population, living conditions, technological development,
climate, ideologies, etc. What defines all those changes is one thing:
fluctuating data, both in amounts and quality.

Of course data is a common place in today's cultural discourse, but it can
be seen also as a paradigm with interesting consequences, since it allows
us 2 look @ history from a point of view beyond morale. Contemplating
humanity as an a-moral species could be a practical attitude, because less
charged with emotional prejudices. From a position where war is acceptable
we can go further into frantic rejection, embarrassed commitment or
negotiated acceptance. This is what makes so difficult life beyond morale:
the scope of choices it opens. Only old societies can live (sometimes) with
this attitude. But they die afterwards, usually from invasions by younger,
moral societies. Still, the ritual aspect of warfare, as documented by
anthropological studies of the Yanomam=F6 (Orinoco River), Maring (New
Guinea), the Maori etc. proves that encoded violence is an activity as
necessary as any 4 the survival of the social tissue.

Calin Dan
Akademie Schloss "Solitude"
Studio 22
Solitude 3
D-70197 Stuttgart
T: + 49 711 69 930 122
=46: + 49 711 69 930 150
Receive mail: calin @ euronet.nl (and the present one)


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