It would seem that logical for humans to hate war and only be disgusted by it, since everyone seem to know that it is evil and source of human misery. Yet, we love it, we read about it, watch it and play it. We are fascinated by weapons. Why is this the case?
>reddit tier answers about us being le heckin' hairless apes need no apply

>>24509611 (OP)
2000 years of christkek morality wasn't enough to override humanity's will to expand and subjugate

We are fortunate to live in a time where war is less prevalent. The overall trend has been a reduction in war as well as deaths from war.

>>24509611 (OP)
i guess the people who weren't fascinated by war were wiped out by those who were

>>24509611 (OP)
Bro's never watched a war movie. War is the fucking bomb. Pun intended. We'll never stop liking war unless we devolve out of liking cool things.

>>24509611 (OP)
We're animals who got a bit too arrogant because muh technology but we still have those animal impulses for violence.

>>24509611 (OP)
War was always here. Even before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner

power, dominance, superiority
people going to war usually get gassed up by propaganda to believe they are fighting for a just cause and are smashing a parasite, it‘s intoxicating and cathartic
it‘s also intensely bonding to feel like you are part of something bigger than you, that you belong and you matter, the energy of the mass in motion is addictive, like being on drugs
it feels alive and like things are moving, it takes you into the moment and out if your head, you become primal force of violence again
and in times where we have no outlet for this and no source for it, we try to satiate the craving with vidja, reading about it, fantasizing about it

>>24509611 (OP)
Thanatos

>>24509611 (OP)
For as long as the world's resources are limited, humans are going to fight over them. So, forever.
In order to motivate people to fight, war has to be portrayed as noble, virtuous and exciting. And in fact it often does bring out the best in people.
Much tragic material has been written about the British experience in WWI, notably by the war poets. But many British soldiers reported having the time of their lives, enjoying comradeship, adventure and intervals of carefree leisure.
So yes, fighting must have its attractive side, otherwise we wouldn't do it.

>>24509611 (OP)

The warrior is an archetype my friend, he lives in the brain of man as the ultimate expression of God's favor, the chosen blade walking amongst human butter. All warriors were blessed by god. See tens of thousands of men singing this song at concerts wanting to be him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4vj_WB5w_k&list=RDb4vj_WB5w_k&start_radio=1

>>24511540

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Carton_de_Wiart

Into the fire through trenches and mud
Son of Belgium and Ireland with war in his blood
Leading the charge into hostile barrage
By design, he was made for the frontline

Studied law, with a thirst for war
Fought in Africa, wanted more
Back in Europe then straight to France
He’s joining the allied advance

Through the Somme and the Devil’s Wood
All the battles that he withstood
Born a soldier enjoyed the war
He always kept coming for more

Never die, shot through the eye
Never surrender however they try
How they try, shot through the eye
He’ll never die

At the edge of madness, in a time of sadness
An immortal soldier, finds his home
Proven under fire, over trench and wire
No fear of death he’s unshakeable

In the battles, when he was shot
Kept on fighting, and never stopped
In Arras, Cambrai, Passchendaele
Ignoring his wounds he prevailed

Save the day, he’ll never stray
Facing the foes that are coming his way
Come his way, he’ll never stray
Saving the day

At the edge of madness, in a time of sadness
An immortal soldier, finds his home
Proven under fire, over trench and wire
Forged for the war he’s unbreakable
At the edge of madness, he will show no sadness
Never broken, he’ll be back for more
Proven under fire, over trench and wire
No fear of death he’s unshakeable

Edge of madness!

No fear of death, he is forged for the war,
he will always be coming for more

War is only an aspect of civilised life, not human nature.

We have an obvious capacity to engage in warfare, but our brains are not hardwired to identify and kill outsiders involved in collective conflicts. Group attacks emerged with the birth of agriculture (birth of civilisation; quite late-on as far as human history goes).

>>24509671
You act as if this a good thing.

Anyways, any books that anons would recommend on the topic of war, both fiction and nonfiction?

>>24509611 (OP)
It depends on if your view of war sees your enemy as an outsider or disregards borders and treats human beings as interchangeable units of wholesome redditness that can do no wrong and should never be harmed in any way.

>>24509611 (OP)
In this sorts of discussions, people get caught up in the "man vs man" angle, but IMO the reason that war is so enduring is the men vs men angle. war isn't about a single man dominating all other men in a feat of strength; it's about cohesive groups of men acting in unison to achieve greater triumphs than an individual can, while taking a risk to die for something greater than themselves.

humans evolved for hundreds of thousands of years as small bands of hunter gatherers acting cooperatively to survive. if war peaks our interest it's because it represents the height of what our in-group cooperation can achieve from a grand strategic level all the way down to a small group tactical level. men daydream about being fighter pilots, roman centurions, Apache raiders, samurai, Arthurian knights etc. because it represents what it would be like to be part of and recognized in a cohesive ingroup that can amplify one's own abilities and vice versa.

>>24511816
Face of Battle & A History of Warfare by John Keegan. Not an authoritative source but he was fairly revolutionary in military history for not just quoting commander's memoirs and soldier's descriptions of battle

>>24512662
iirc it's in the latter where he talks about warfare as being a universal in any society larger than the family band level, and that in primitive societies the distinction between sport and warfare is incredibly blurred based off some anthropological studies of Papuan tribal conflicts

>>24511545
>War is only an aspect of civilised life, not human nature.
True, but it does emulate nature. Small groups of men, part of a larger group of men, all essentially hunting and/or surviving harsh oppressive conditions together. It is basically tribal life with a layer of abstraction over it.

>>24509611 (OP)
All the cultures who never wanted to be in or fight in a war were wiped out by those that were.

>>24509611 (OP)
War back then:
>cool
>die for your own nation who will value you and your family
>male and masculine game
>filled with honor and pride
War now:
>filled with retard soldiers (autist, idiot, society rejects) fighting for money in order to survive
>die for your own boomer politicans who are declaring war with other boomer politicans over some boomer problem
>masculinity and male game replaced with drones, missles, and rocket controlled by some sissies who are too scared to kill each other face to face in an open field
>not a single honor for defending fat retards behind parliament desk or killing people around your age who can make a better future, your wife will be plowed by other men while you got drafted and your children will grow up fatherless

>>24509611 (OP)
>Why do we love war?
Start with Nietzsche.

>>24512741
>surviving harsh oppressive conditions together
is the opposite of war.

>>24509611 (OP)
"We" do not love war. You likely love war because your parents were siblings and you were raised by a single mother triggering your lack of masculinity of which you feel the trifling need to prove of yourself.

I would argue people love sports 100 times more than they like war.
Sport is common everywhere with an endless amount of people who follow it, play it, go to games etc.
Even in war, only a few percent of the population will join the army, nobody is watching videos of actual war footage on the weekends, almost nobody is following overseas wars compared to the level people obsess and follow sport.

I have attached a chart of the percent of each countries population that died in world war 2, from highest down.
Note UK, USA, and Australia all under 1%
This is the biggest war of all time, where were all the people signing up to fight from these countries if they all love war so much?

In summary, people don't love war, to get anywhere near over 1% of your population to die in a war, you need total psychopaths in control forcing others to die or invading your country giving you no other choice.

>>24513831

Forgot picture.

>>24509611 (OP)
Because there's a difference between war as presented in fiction and play and war as it is in reality. It's like saying why do people love serial killer thrillers or why women love reading about rape. It's all fantastic representations that don't correspond the slightest to actual events in physical space and time.
To compare kids playing war and being friends afterwards to Russians and Ukrainian killing each other in the field and who will hate each other guts for millennia to come is stupid.
All the anons here, speaking about comradeship, evopsych - the heckin hairless apes as parroted here >>24512637 - and whatever, have a very, very, very romantic view about war informed by media consumption than the lived reality. If any single anon were dropped in Gaza or Ukraine or South Sudan for a month, he'll return traumatized for life and a hardcore leftist.
Every normal person knows that actual war and murder is wrong but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy fiction related to war and weapons and killing. The more you research into Samurais, knights, prairie warlords, the more you'll realize that fictional representation - the parts most people enjoy - is fucking miles away from the sordid and brutal flesh and bone realities of the lived in experience.
Don't confuse consumption of filtered and fictionalized and romanticized content with the actual reality.
>>24513487
War was never good. It brought misery, rape, famine, disease, death whenever it happened.
It was never noble. It was done by psychopaths for the sake of killing and raping and pillaging. The fact war is diminishing proves something is being done right.