|
The prospect of looming, highly destructive war has intrigued and terrified human civilizations throughout history. The ability
to wage war is endemic to almost every society in history from the ancient Egyptians to the nations of the present day. By
looking at examples of writing such as poetry, religious scripture, treaties, and fictional novels, we see that humans notice
war as a destructive force that far outstrips any attempt by man to change his environment or his fellow man. These cultural
representations of a world-ending conflict, we can make several clear arguments concerning how the potential for destruction
that war can cause is reflected in writing. These include the prospect of massive death at the hands of powerful institutions,
and the fear of a certain enemy that can cause untold destruction if not defeated.
Defining the Catalyst for War
One of the classic examples of a world-ending war scenario occurs in the Christian Holy Bible, especially the prophecies
of Saint John the Divine in the Book of Revelation. This book is perhaps the defining example of the end of the world by warfare.
The very word Apocalypse can be ascribed to the Bible, as it is translated as a “lifting of the veil”
to show the Second Coming of Christ to do battle with the evil forces of Satan and the Antichrist who control the human armies
on Earth.
War is first mentioned outright in Chapter 6 as John witnesses the Four Horsemen:
When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, 'Come and see.' Another horse, fiery red, went
out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and
there was given to him a great sword. (Revelation 6:4)
This is a release of the personification of the destruction of war. The red horseman introduces the destabilization of
the peace of the human race in order to commit evil acts. As a matter of Biblical interpretation, this can be seen as an appeal
for peace. The culture that produced this chapter understands the destruction that war can cause on the human race, and what
can happen if the ability to wage war is given to evil powers.
However, the war caused by the Horseman is outweighed by the ultimate war between good and evil. The final battle between
Christ and Satan occurs at the Valley of Megiddo and is known as “Armageddon.” During the battle there
is a great cataclysm as all the cities are destroyed and the earth is broken. In this event, humans are left beholden to their
masters, without any power to influence the presence of destruction, save for their own allegiance to Christ, or their deception
by Satan. These are powers that defy any human consciousness. The role of the great powers of God and Satan and the smaller
power of the Red Horseman are two of the catalysts for world-ending war.
Small powers gain the upper hand
As mentioned, a smaller, weaker power can have the ability to wreak untold havoc on the human race by causing the destabilization
of world governments. In many modern geopolitical thriller novels, this smaller power takes the form of terrorists who fight
for an ideology or conviction. If they manage to gain hold of the means to attack a major world power, it can cause destruction
as a result of the fog of war, a concept which prevents a force from identifying and defeating its enemy.
This situation is featured in the 1955 novel, The Mouse that Roared, by Leonard Wibberley. The novel comedically details
a tiny, insignificant nation that manages to acquire the ultimate doomsday device and hold the world hostage to meet its demands.
Here we see the prospect of a world-ending war as cause to meet the demands of the weak party. The fact that the future of
the world is out of the hands of most of its inhabitants is what causes this fear.
A similar situation occurs in the 1991 Tom Clancy novel, The Sum of All Fears. A Middle Eastern terrorist organization
committed to Palestinian liberation acquires a nuclear bomb from an Israeli jet fighter during the Yom Kippur War. The group
then sets off the bomb during the Super Bowl in Denver in order to sow conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union.
These terrorists manage to gain the upper hand by taking advantage of the world situation, causing the potential for a climactic
nuclear exchange. However, the novel ends with peace as the perpetrators are caught and executed, representing the necessity
for capital punishment to save the human race. The deaths of those few save the deaths of millions.
The great powers
The major conflict that causes war are the nations that declare it. These nations represent millions of people or a nonhuman
abstraction such as good or evil. When the belligerent forces achieve this strength then they can be compared to the conflict
between God and Satan in Revelation.
The Walter M. Miller novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz, is an example of how the failure of humans to unite and forgo their
sanity proves the demise of the race. Twice in the novel, humans cause their own destruction through nuclear war, symbolizing
the cyclical nature of history. Despite all attempts to produce peace between the Atlantic Confederacy and the Asian Coalition
the novel ends with a second nuclear war that destroys all life on Earth.
Another, more complex war situation is in T.S. Eliot's 1925 poem, The Hollow Men. Commenting on the aftermath of World
War I, Eliot saw humans destroyed by technology and the debasing of humanity by war. He speaks of the “violent souls”
of man. The final stanza illustrates this clearly: “This is the way the world ends/ This is the way the world ends/This
is the way the world ends.”
One final example of the threat of war between the great powers is found in true history. During the seventeenth century,
the Thirty Years War was fought between all the major powers of Europe. The war brought incredible destruction never before
seen in a single European war with millions of deaths, especially in the region of present-day Germany. By 1648, the Peace
of Westphalia was declared, thus ending the conflicts. In the final treaty, a massive peace is declared among all of Europe,
and the borders of the nations are explicitly defined to give their modern appearance. The Europeans placed their trust in
the hope that future wars would not occur on the scale that they had.
Conclusion
The act of war is one of the most powerful human statements in history. It has the ability to end the lives of millions,
and cause the destruction of the entire planet and its people. Humans have reacted in many ways to this threat throughout
history. All of them see war as a terrible cost that must be prevented or ended quickly and peacefully once started.
Edit Text
|
