Comments on: A good war, or bad peace? (Franklin) http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2007/05/26/a-good-war-or-bad-peace-franklin/ A web site by Joshua Sowin that addresses culture, books, technology, ecology, religion, and other topics. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:22:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Steven http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2007/05/26/a-good-war-or-bad-peace-franklin/#comment-47325 Steven Thu, 20 Sep 2007 22:03:08 +0000 http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2007/05/26/a-good-war-or-bad-peace-franklin/#comment-47325 I think the sense of Franklin's statement is that war always entails death, destruction, and a multitude of occurrences that would be considered terrible and, usually unlawful in almost any other circumstances, so war must always be considered a failure of reason, law, morality, etc., even if ones argues that a particular war was somehow necessary or unavoidable. Incidentally, people sometimes point to the elimination of Hitler, or American slavery, or any of a host of other things that are represented to be due to "good" war, but the fact that something occurred in a particular manner in history does not mean that it was the best or even the only way in which this end could have been achieved. A conflict of interests or values does not automatically justify the horrible means of war: we just get too lazy or impatient or frightened or greedy to pursue better alternatives. Almost every culture at least gives lip service to the "Golden Rule," yet in war we routinely and self-righteously do unto others what we should never want done to us or our loved ones. I think the sense of Franklin’s statement is that war always entails death, destruction, and a multitude of occurrences that would be considered terrible and, usually unlawful in almost any other circumstances, so war must always be considered a failure of reason, law, morality, etc., even if ones argues that a particular war was somehow necessary or unavoidable. Incidentally, people sometimes point to the elimination of Hitler, or American slavery, or any of a host of other things that are represented to be due to “good” war, but the fact that something occurred in a particular manner in history does not mean that it was the best or even the only way in which this end could have been achieved. A conflict of interests or values does not automatically justify the horrible means of war: we just get too lazy or impatient or frightened or greedy to pursue better alternatives. Almost every culture at least gives lip service to the “Golden Rule,” yet in war we routinely and self-righteously do unto others what we should never want done to us or our loved ones.

]]> By: Josh Sowin http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2007/05/26/a-good-war-or-bad-peace-franklin/#comment-22947 Josh Sowin Tue, 29 May 2007 14:22:53 +0000 http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2007/05/26/a-good-war-or-bad-peace-franklin/#comment-22947 Andrew, Good question. Franklin wasn't completely against war -- he supported the American Revolution, for instance. But he still thought war was horrible (which it is). So my guess is if war was the only way that could stop Hitler, then he would have supported it. Josh Andrew,

Good question. Franklin wasn’t completely against war — he supported the American Revolution, for instance. But he still thought war was horrible (which it is). So my guess is if war was the only way that could stop Hitler, then he would have supported it.

Josh

]]> By: Andrew http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2007/05/26/a-good-war-or-bad-peace-franklin/#comment-22858 Andrew Sun, 27 May 2007 02:46:46 +0000 http://www.fireandknowledge.org/archives/2007/05/26/a-good-war-or-bad-peace-franklin/#comment-22858 What do we say then about wars like WWII, fought against a clearly bad force? Would it have been a "good peace" if America had remained at peace rather than entering the fight against Hitler? Perhaps Franklin could not have foreseen, or at least did not forsee, this kind of war; or else what would he say? What do we say then about wars like WWII, fought against a clearly bad force? Would it have been a “good peace” if America had remained at peace rather than entering the fight against Hitler? Perhaps Franklin could not have foreseen, or at least did not forsee, this kind of war; or else what would he say?

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