ABSTRACT
Whether one accepts or rejects Karl Wittfogel’s thesis that the organization of agriculture and irrigation provided the model for military command, it is clear that disciplined, hierarchical fi ghting forces, once developed, were not only ideal means of aggression but imposing instruments of social control. So man’s fi rst political agenda was set; he became an imperial ape and a soldier, a conqueror and an organizer. And this, it would seem, is how and why war was born. . . . War is and always was a cultural phenomenon among humans. What we learned to do, we can choose to stop doing. We may not so choose, but it is possible. Our fate is in our hands. Technology, particularly nuclear technology, has rendered war, man’s most powerful social institution, obsolete. If we recognize this in time, we will probably remain alive . . . .
