Gods exist to receive gifts

WARFARE AS POTLATCH

Dear Colleague,

This is the third of our "Monday Morning Newsletters." Koenigsberg returns to the theme of potlatch, refuting the idea that nations wage war for the sake of "gain." On the contrary, he says, wars are waged in order to generate loss--often monumental loss. Please scroll down the page to read the essay.

Judged simply by the empirical record, it's clear that the result of warfare is monumental loss. Nevertheless, the delusion persists that wars are waged to achieve something...the wet dream of historians, and men everywhere.

Best regards,

MHGS

Mary Helen Guider-Shaw
Director of Public Relations
Library of Social Science
Phone: (630) 212-0485
Email: mhgs@libraryofsocialscience

The gods exist to receive gifts

Franco Fornari hypothesizes (1974) that war represents a “voluntary destruction of previously accumulated reserves of human capital,” an activity performed with the intention to “sacrifice a certain number of lives.”

Norman O. Brown states (1959) that archaic gift-giving (the potlatch being an example) is “one vast refutation of the notion that the motive of economic life is utilitarian egoism.” Archaic man gives because he wants to lose: “the psychology is self-sacrificial.” The need to produce an economic surplus is connected with the sacred: “Gifts are sacred and the gods exist to receive gifts.”

The First World War was a monumental form of potlatch or ostentatious destruction, each nation striving to demonstrate it's willingness to throw away men (and materials). The greatness or prestige of each nation was measured according to the quantity of men and materials that were thrown away or wasted. The First World War was a massive, sacrificial competiation. The “gift” of millions of lives was offered to the reigning god, the nation state.

Limbless British Veterans after the First World War (Roehampton Military Hospital)

First World War Casualties