War and Peace
Mythologies of War and Peace
From the text:
Myths o Live By
Joseph Campbell
Copyright 1972
From a lecture given in 1967
It is for an obvious reason far easier to name examples of mythologies of war than mythologies of peace ;for not only has conflict between groups been normal to human experience, but there is also the cruel fact to be recognized that killing is the precondition of all living whatsoever: life lives on life, eats life, and would otherwise not exist.
“Man,” wrote Oswald Spengler, “is a beast of prey.” That is simply a fact of nature……Heraclitus declared war to be the creator of all great things; and in the words again of Spengler, “The one who lacks courage to be a hammer comes off in the role of the anvil.” Many a sensitive mind reacting to this unwelcome truth, has found nature intolerable, and has cried down all those best fit to live as “wicked,” “evil,” or “monstrous,” setting up instead, as a counter-ideal, the model of him who turns the other cheek and whose kingdom is not of this world. And so it is that two radically opposed basic mythologies can be identified in the broad panorama of history: one in which this monstrous precondition of all temporal life is affirmed with a will, and the other in which it is denied. (emphasis placed by Mr. Hughes)
I know of no primitive people anywhere that either rejects and despises conflict or represents warfare as an absolute evil. The great hunting tribesmen are killing animals all the time, and since meat supplies are limited, there are inevitably collisions between the members of contending groups coming in to slaughter the same herds. By and large, hunting people are warrior people; and not only that, but many are exhilarated by battle and turn warfare into exercises of bravura. The rites and mythologies of such tribesmen are based generally on the idea that there is no such thing as death. If the blood of an animal slain is returned to the soil, it will carry the life principle
From the text:
Myths o Live By
Joseph Campbell
Copyright 1972
From a lecture given in 1967
It is for an obvious reason far easier to name examples of mythologies of war than mythologies of peace ;for not only has conflict between groups been normal to human experience, but there is also the cruel fact to be recognized that killing is the precondition of all living whatsoever: life lives on life, eats life, and would otherwise not exist.
“Man,” wrote Oswald Spengler, “is a beast of prey.” That is simply a fact of nature……Heraclitus declared war to be the creator of all great things; and in the words again of Spengler, “The one who lacks courage to be a hammer comes off in the role of the anvil.” Many a sensitive mind reacting to this unwelcome truth, has found nature intolerable, and has cried down all those best fit to live as “wicked,” “evil,” or “monstrous,” setting up instead, as a counter-ideal, the model of him who turns the other cheek and whose kingdom is not of this world. And so it is that two radically opposed basic mythologies can be identified in the broad panorama of history: one in which this monstrous precondition of all temporal life is affirmed with a will, and the other in which it is denied. (emphasis placed by Mr. Hughes)
I know of no primitive people anywhere that either rejects and despises conflict or represents warfare as an absolute evil. The great hunting tribesmen are killing animals all the time, and since meat supplies are limited, there are inevitably collisions between the members of contending groups coming in to slaughter the same herds. By and large, hunting people are warrior people; and not only that, but many are exhilarated by battle and turn warfare into exercises of bravura. The rites and mythologies of such tribesmen are based generally on the idea that there is no such thing as death. If the blood of an animal slain is returned to the soil, it will carry the life principle