Analysis Of War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning By David P. Barash

War is an addiction of the inferior. David P. Barash believes that war is caused and sustained by those who need violence to give their lives meaning. There has been a certain appeal given to war through media, movies and stories causing people to admire war, bringing an attractiveness to the violence through the thought of heroism, thrill and altruism (Barash 18, Paragraphs 1 and 2). Barash begins to describe these people in a way that shows them as lesser, giving himself a sense of elitism, believing that he is better because he does not indulge or depend on the acts of war to give his life purpose. The writer starts this section of War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning to preference how war is for those with small minds, and that if humans

His argument is structured on the idea that people do not understand what real war is, and because he has this sense of elitism he believes that he can persuade his audience to think like him by making them feel inferior. The author writes, “I learned early on that war forms its own culture. The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug, one I ingested for many years.” (Barash 19, Paragraph 3) showing that he has overcome this addiction, that he has repaired his way of thinking and shown that like all other drugs, it clouds how you think, but can be overcome. Barash structures his arguments in a way to make his audience feel less than if they do not follow his same beliefs and visions; to be above others, you must think and act as he

Carl Von Clausewitz poses to show that war does not exist in a vacuum, it cannot be considered as fighting alone, there are multiple complex factors to take into consideration, including the political and citizen needs. It is important to understand these concepts both as a whole and separately to understand war. (Clausewitz Book 1, Chapter 2) Barash uses his arguments to dehumanize and belittle the members of his audience that do not align with his ideas while Clausewitz’s arguments are grounded and he believes that it is important to show and prove how war exists in the real world with real implications. There is no greater disadvantage to war than to underestimate your enemy and see them as inferior, unlike how Barash speaks of those who deal in war and