"The Greatness of War" by Heinrich von Treitschke

Treitschke's beliefs of war:

• War is the remedy for an afflicted people
• During a crisis, the individual must forget himself and recognize the good of the whole and the state
• Nationalities must make a sacrifice for their own land
• It is foolish to try to abolish the heroism that comes out of wars
• The Bible and God agree that " the man in authority shall wield the sword"
• Everlasting peace is a foolish thought because the Aryan race is brave
• War is a "terrible medicine for humanity" and everlasting peace is foolishly reactionary
• "To banish war from history would be to banish all progress and becoming"

Reflections On Violence, Georges Sorel

• Irrational forces constitute the essence of human nature
• Sorel recognizes political potential of nonrational
• Like Nietzsche, Sorel was disillusioned with bourgeois society
• Considers it decadent, unheroic, and life-denying
• Places hope in Proletariat
• Courageous and Virile
• Sorel wants to destroy existing bourgeois-liberal-capitalist order
• accomplished through universal work stoppage, which would make governments give power to the workers
• General strike has appeal of great myth
• its image would stir all antibourgeois resentment of the workers
• insipire them to carry out thier revolutionary responsibility
• By believing in the myth of the general strike, workers would soar above the moral decadence of bourgeois society
• Myth serves a religious function
• unites the faithful into a collectivity with one will and induces heroic state of mind
• Sorel applaudes violence
• Accords with his conception that life is an unremitting battle and history is a perpetual conflict between decay and vitality
• Sorel's pseudoreligious exaltation of voilence and massaction
• Condemnation of liberal democracy and rationalism
• recognition of power and political utility of irrational and fabricated myths
• vision of heroic morality finds concrete expression in fascist movements after WWI

Thesis: von Bernhardi's work considered the waging of war to be a biological necessity by which states were able to remove those who were weaker from society with continuing the life of individuals who served states which needed increased resources in order to support their population.

x- War is an inevitable and good facet of all forms of civilization

x- War is an expression of Social Darwinism- nations must struggle so the strongest survive,

x- War is necessary for states with growing populations to survive through increasing their territory

x- Might is the supreme right, military authority is universally recognized as the defining force