On Fri, 30 Apr 2004, Jon Johanning wrote:
> Well, I fear that a lot more causes war than class division; even if
> capitalism were eliminated, I doubt that it would do much to end war,
> because there are lots of things people can fight about besides
> economic issues, if they want to.
This reminds me of the argument some feminists raise against the socialist-feminist claim that capitalism and sexism are mutually dependent: "Sexism existed before capitalism, so capitalism can't possible be a cause of sexism!" --The socialist feminist point, which I still more or less buy, is that capitalist social relations tend to reinforce and benefit from discrimination against women (e.g., free household labor = families surviving on lower wages = maximization of profits). Thus substantial gender stratification persists in a society that purported "treats everyone equally".
I'm thinking along the same lines with my comment about capitalism and militarism. Sure, war existed before capitalism. However, capitalism tends to intensify militarism in at least two ways.
1. Wars tend to emerge about conflict over valued resources. Over human history, the likelihood of war is lowest in societies with little or no "stored" wealth (hunting/gathering societies) and highest in societies with substantial resources to allocate and unequal access to those resources (agrarian/industrial societies). In that the whole point of capitalism is accumulation and expropriation, capitalist social relations create a social structure "predisposed" to war.
2. Capitalist social relations also intensify the means for conducting war. U. S. companies sell military weapons all over the world, often to both sides in the same conflict. Governments' need to counteract the weapons of their opponents creates a demand for more and more deadly and horrific weapons, and the free market meets that demand. Moreover, some of the profits generated can be directed to lobbyist and politicians, thus ensuring continued political support for the rampant militarism.
In short: capitalism is a necessary precondition for the type of hypermilitarism we have in the U. S. today.
Miles