War Is a Force That Gives Us MeaningAs a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: “It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.” Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies, corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting the most basic human desires. Mixing hard-nosed realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION I | 1 |
The Myth of War | 19 |
The Plague of Nationalism | 43 |
The Destruction of Culture | 62 |
The Seduction of Battle | 83 |
The Hijacking | 122 |
The Cause | 142 |
Eros and Thanatos | 157 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
addiction Argentine Armenian army atrocities attacks Balkans battle become began Belgrade bodies Bosnia Bosnian Serb Bosnian war camp carried cause Chris Hedges collapse combat conflict corpses crimes Croatian Croats culture Cypriots dead death destruction El Salvador enemy ethnic groups fear fight film fire forces front German Goražde grave Greek Greek Cypriot Gulf houses huge human Iraq Iraqi Islamic Israeli Ivo Andrić Jews killed killers Kosova Kurdish Kuwait Kuwait City leaders lines lives Ljesić Lukić meaning memory ment military Milošević moral mother murder Muslims mythic nation never night once Palestinian police prison Radovan Karadžić rebels reporters Salvador Sarajevo Serbian Shakespeare shot society soldiers Sorak speak streets struggle survive told town troops Turkish turned United University victims Vietnam village violence Višegrad war's warfare warlords wartime watched women World War II wounded wrote York young Yugoslav Yugoslavia