On War. If a friendly alien came to earth and were interested in knowing what war is and why it happens, I would be more than happy to recommend where to start to learn the basics about it. Everything that can be said, has been said, about war. Attending to the works of Poets, philosophers, politicians, painters, singers and many, many others can explain it very easily to our alien. Certainly, some of these smart people have done it with beautiful, touching phrases; others with brainy, clever statements; and still others, with awful, atrocious paintings or pictures. All would be very painful for them to experience, no doubt. I am not sure if our curious alien would be able to comprehend the point of war, and I wouldn’t blame them if the first thing they did were to hurry back to their spacecraft and set off for home at the speed of light, if such a thing were possible. Meanwhile, we here have no other option than to remain on earth and cope with this overwhelming and heartbreaking reality. But the big question is: will humanity see the definitive end of war one day? Unfortunately, I’m not as optimistic as I would like to be. For one thing, war is a phenomenon that has accompanied humans from the very moment our ancestors were able to use a stone or a trunk as an offensive weapon against another human. In summary, Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, already answered that question 25 centuries ago. Pitifully, and in a terrible, discouraging way, he said: ‘Only the dead have seen the end of war.’

On War. If a friendly alien came to earth, say, and was interested in knowing what war is and why it happens, I would be more than happy to recommend where to start to learn the basics about it. All has been said about war already, in many different ways. Poets, philosophers, politicians, painters, singers, and many, many others might explain it to our very welcome alien. Surely, some of those smart persons would do it with beautiful, touching sentences; others with brainy, clever statements; and still others, with awful, atrocious paintings or pictures. All very painful to read and see, no doubt. I am not sure if our curious alien might be able to comprehend what the point of all this is about, and I wouldn’t blame them if first thing they did were to hurry back to their spacecraft and set off home at the speed of light, if such a thing is possible. Meanwhile, we all have no option other than remain on earth and cope with this overwhelming and heartbreaking reality. But the big question is: will humanity see the definitive end of war one day? Unfortunately, I’m not as optimistic as I would like to be. For one thing, war is a phenomenon that has came along with human beings from the very moment one of our ancestors were able to use a stone or a trunk as an offensive weapon against another human being. Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, already answered that question 25 centuries ago, and pitifully in a terrible, discouraging way: ‘Only the dead have seen the end of war.’