WSC's Forty-first Meeting

For our forty-first meeting, we returned to a familiar place. Decanter @ PJ Section 17. 

The last time we were there was in June and that too, Suriakumar was the organizer/host, as it was on Friday.

And his choice of theme arguably had geopolitical tones. It was "War and Peace". Of course, Suria, being an avid reader, also made quick reference to that literary work of the same name by Russian author Leo Tolstoy. FYI, this novel was written in the early 19th century and set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars.

In addressing this particular topic, the question “Why War?” pleads for an answer. 

Interestingly, I read that almost a century ago, physicist Albert Einstein invited the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud to answer this question in psychological terms, because he assumed that there must be a scientific explanation rooted somewhere in the human mind. Freud replied that humans were driven by a capacity both for love and for destruction, and the latter, expressed in what Freud called the “death drive”, was the root of war and violence. 

Meaning, warfare is not an aberration but rather a fundamental and inherent feature of human nature. He argued that aggression and violent instincts are inseparable from the human psyche, just as are love and the desire for life. 

However, sociologist and peace scholar Elise Boulding had a different perspective: “War is not inherent in human beings. We learn war and we learn peace. The culture of peace is something which is learned, just as violence is learned and war culture is learned”. 

There were again, only four members who made it to the meeting – never mind, we spent quality time, over coffee, beers and whisky, bonding together and building camaraderie.

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