ABSTRACT
Plato taught in The Republic that the qualities in each of us will be evident in our state and that what is harmonious and healthy in a nation will be true of its citizenry. Conversely, what is destructive in a nation will be similarly expressed by its people. War in this way affects everyone and everything. It not only disorders our individual psyches, it also rearranges our collective guideposts and cracks our social containers. Our senses of unity, morality, values, roles and responsibilities, and codes of conduct are all distorted according to its dictates. … By encouraging the instinctual, bestial, cruel dimensions of a people, war evokes the cultural shadow, revealing both the best and the worst in a society and in its citizens as well.
