“Worship Athena, not Ares.” -Robert Greene
War is a wonderful innovator in technology. Not just in how we can more efficiently kill other people, but communications and medications so that we can do damage at a faster rate and repair people and things for the war effort. Opportunities abound for winning wealth and gaining personal glory.
What we rarely get from war is wisdom.
We already know that people are different, and that they will act in their self-interest when they can, and exploit those weaker than themselves. That jealousy has been an instigator of violence since Cain slew Abel.
There is some understanding of the brutality of the human condition that is made blatant during war, and the shining examples of courage and noble sacrifice that present themselves in the destruction and death. But these luminaries are too rare, which is what makes them exceptional and remembered.
Better than fighting a war is winning a war. And better than winning the war is preemptively winning it, making the battles and disruption never happen in the first place because we have learned what Sun Tzu noted 2,500 years ago. Through understanding, perspective, and wisdom.
The Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after WWII was a massive expenditure and prevented yet another war a few decades later as Europe was previously wont to do because the peace dividend and cross-border creation of hope and opportunity made war an unattractive option. The failure to replicate this approach is because the same playbook was attempted without the wisdom of understanding current situations (in Africa, in the Middle East, in Afghanistan, etc.) so Ares re-emerges over and over again because of failure to listen to Athena’s guidance.
Think. Question. Learn. Communicate. These are the tools of peace and growth as opposed to the weapons of war. Use them and listen to the voice of wisdom as it guides to a more glorious future than fighting.