Remarks at the Peace Banquet

Remarks at the Peace Banquet
I am only a philosopher, rattan furnitureand there is only one thing that a philosopher can be relied on to do. You know that the function of statistics has been ingeniously described as being the refutation of other statistics. Well, a philosopher can always contradict other philosophers. golf clubsIn ancient times philosophers defined man as the rational animal; and philosophers since then activity never lets up and that it presses always in one direction, women's handbagswhile men's prejudices vary, their passions ebb and flow, and their excitements are intermittent. Our sand-bank, I absolutely believe, is bound to grow, -- bit by bit it will get dyked and breakwatered. golf clubsBut sitting as we do in this warm room, with music and lights and the flowing bowl and smiling faces, New jerseyit is easy to get too sanguine about our task, and since I am called to speak, I feel as if it might not be out of place to say a word about the strength of our enemy.
Our permanent enemy is the noted bellicosity of human nature.nba jerseys Man, biologically considered, and whatever else he may be in the bargain, is simply the most formidable of all beasts of prey, and, indeed,discount golf clubs the only one that preys systematically on its own species. We are once for all adapted to the military status. hockey jerseysA millennium of peace would not breed the fighting disposition out of our bone and marrow, and a function so ingrained and vital will never consent to die without resistance,cheap jordans and will always find impassioned apologists and idealizers.
But apart from theoretic defenders, and apart from every soldierly individual straining at the leash, world cup football shirtsand clamoring for opportunity, war has an omnipotent support in the form of our imagination.nike air Jordan Man lives by habits, indeed, but what he lives for is thrills and excitements. The only relief from Habit's tediousness is periodical excitement.Gucci Shoes From time immemorial wars have been, especially for non-combatants, the supremely thrilling excitement. Heavy and dragging at its end, at its outset every war means an explosion of imaginative energy. The dams of routine burst, and boundless prospects open. jordan shoesThe remotest spectators share the fascination. With that awful struggle now in progress on the confines of the world, there is not a man in this room, I suppose, who doesn't buy both an evening and a morning paper, and first of all pounce on the war column.
A deadly listlessness would come over most men's imagination of the future if they could seriously be brought to believe that never again in saecula saeculorum would a war trouble human history. designer sunglassesIn such a stagnant summer afternoon of a world, where would be the zest or interest ?
We do ill, I fancy, to talk much of universal peace or of a general disarmament. We must go in for preventive medicine not for radical cure. air jordansWe must cheat our foe, politically circumvent his action, not try to change his nature. In one respect war is like love, though in no other. Both leave us intervals of rest; and in the intervals life goes on perfectly well without them, though the imagination still dallies with their possibility.nike blazer Equally insane when once aroused and under headway, whether they shall be aroused or not depends on accidental circumstances. How are old maids and old bachelors made? Not by deliberate vows of celibacy, air force onesbut by sliding on from year to year with no sufficient matrimonial provocation.
The last weak runnings of the war spirit will be "punitive expeditions." A country that turns its arms only against uncivilized foes is, I think, wrongly taunted as degenerate. air jordan shoesOf course it has ceased to be heroic in the old grand style. But I verily believe that this is because it now sees something better. It has a conscience. It knows that between civilized countries a war is a crime against civilization. It will still perpetrate peccadillos, to be sure. But it is afraid, afraid in the good sense of the word, to engage in absolute crimes against civilization.