Jan 24, 2021 · 11 min
Benefits of peace: Peace is, indeed, at once the mother and the nurse of all that is good for man. War on a sudden, and at one stroke, overwhelms, extinguishes, abolishes. whatever is cheerful, whatever is happy and beautiful, and pours a foul torrent of disasters on the life of mortals. Peace shines upon human affairs like the vernal sun. The fields are cultivated, the gardens bloom, the cattle are fed upon a thousand hills, new buildings arise, ancient edifices are repaired, riches flow, pleasures smile, laws retain their vigour, the discipline of the police prevails, religion glows with ardour, justice bears sway, humanity and charity increase, arts and manufactures feel the genial warmth of encouragement, the gains of the poor are more plentiful, the opulence of the rich displays itself with additional splendour, liberal studies flourish, the young are well educated, the old enjoy their ease, marriages are happy, good men thrive, and the bad are kept under control. War: But no sooner does the storm of war begin to lower, than what a deluge of miseries and misfortunes seizes* inundates, and overwhelms all things within the sphere of its action The flocks are scattered, the harvest trampled, the husbandman butchered, villas and villages burnt, cities and states, that have been ages rising to their flourishing state, subverted by the fury of one tempest, the storm of war. So much easier is the task of doing harm than of doing good, of destroying than of building up ! The earnings of honest industry, the wealth of quiet citizens are transferred to the pockets of execrable robbers and murderers. Private houses exhibit the dismal effects of fear, sorrow, and complaint; and all places resound with the voice of lamentation. The loom stands still ; the trowel, the axe, and the hammer are silent j and the poor manufacturers must either starve, or have recourse to wicked practices for daily bread. The rich either deplore the diminution and less of their property, or lie under terrible apprehension for what remains ; in both circumstances rendered by war incapable of enjoying the common comforts of life. Marriages are few, or attended with distressful and fatal consequences. -Matrons deserted by their husbands, now forced to the wars, pine at home in childless solitude. The laws are compelled to silence, charity is laughed at, justice has no dwelling-place, and religion becomes an object of scorn, till no distinction is left between the sacred and the profane. Youth is corrupted by every species of vice ; old men lament their longevity ; and their grey hairs descend with sorrow to the grave. No honour is paid to learning, sciences, arts, the elegant pursuits of liberal and honourable minds. To these considerations add, that the advantages derived from peace diffuse themselves far and wide, and reach great numbers; while in war, if any thing turns out happily, though, O my God, what can ever deserve the appellation of happy in war ! Military industrial complex & politicians the advantage redounds only to a few, and those unworthy of reaping it. One man's safety is owing to the destruction of another ; one man's prize derived from the plunder of another. The cause of rejoicings made by one side, is to the other a cause of mourning. Whatever is unfortunate in war, is severely so indeed; and whatever, on the contrary, is called good fortune, is a savage and a cruel good fortune, an ungenerous happiness deriving its existence from another's woe. Indeed, at the conclusion, it commonly happens, that both sides, the victorious and the vanquished, have cause to deplore.* https://archive.org/stream/complaintofpeace00era/complaintofpeace00era_djvu.txt https://mises.org/library/erasmus-war https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN3EryUG0EA&t=2593s