Previous page | TOC | Next page
During the last week of June 2022, Lyonel Fritsch, a new friend, asked Nickantony Quach for his thoughts on the role of war in society after looking at a related quote by George Carlin. He immediately asked himself the following question. This chapter attempts to provide an answer.
What is a war? It’s a concept more complex than a conflict, fight, or battle. Let’s tackle these simple concepts first.
To analyze the concept of conflict, consider the following sequence of thumbnail definitions.
- Conduct; that means, standardized interaction.
- Behavior; that means, social conduct.
- Principle; that means, the foundation for behaviors.
What is a conflict? The following sequence of thumbnail definitions should explain it.
- Infringement; that means, exceeding limits.
- Violation; that means, intentional infringement.
- Conflict; that means, violating principles.
- Struggle; that means, being strenuously engaged. A conflict may not involve any struggle.
The above thumbnails tell us that people cannot see the concept of conflict at play or activated until they see principles violated.
What is a fight? The following sequence of thumbnails should explain it.
- Opposing; that means, aggressive prevention.
- Violence; that means, devastating force.
- Fight; that means, opposing through violence.
- Protest; that means, a fight without violence. This is a related concept.
The above thumbnails tell us that people cannot see the concept of fighting at play or activated until they see the involvement of both opposition and violence.
What is a battle? The following thumbnail sequence should explain it.
- Weapon; that means, a fighting instrument.
- Armed; that means, equipped with weapons.
- Battle; that means, armed fighting.
However, a war is not simply a conflict, fight, or battle. It’s not a prolonged conflict, fight, or battle either. In 1896, a war broke out between Britain and Zanzibar. The Anglo-Zanzibar War lasted between 38 and 45 minutes, marking it the shortest recorded war in history. The losing side sustained roughly 500 casualties, while only one British sailor was injured.
According to Worldhistory.org, “the word ‘war’ comes to English from the old High German language word Werran (to confuse or to cause confusion) through the Old English Werre (meaning the same). It is a state of open and usually declared armed conflict between political entities such as sovereign states or rival political or social factions within the same state.”
The above should lead us to the following thumbnail definitions.
- Military; that means, armed forces.
- War; that means, battles by opposing military organizations.
You are not waging war if your battles may never involve the law of war. A gang war is a conflict between two gangs; it is not a war because it involves neither a military organization nor the law of war.
Every war has a definite beginning and ending, regardless of its length. The War in Afghanistan was the longest in the military history of the United States, surpassing the length of the Vietnam War by approximately five months.
The war on crime, the war on cancer, and the war on drugs are political labels for campaigns to put an end to something considered injurious. As a series of operations, a campaign by itself is not a war. Political labels using the word ‘war’ do not necessarily evoke a war metaphor properly. Crime, cancer, and drugs are problems in every human society. They are human conditions, not the enemy of our humanity. There are no beginnings or endings to these human conditions.
COVID-19 is the enemy of our humanity; most countries wage war against it using large organizations comparable to military organizations. Several nations deployed the military as part of the war against COVID-19. It has a definite beginning; Ii will have a definite ending.
After composing the above text, the author generated the following list to count the number of thumbnail definitions involved in this chapter. The number shown at the end of each thumbnail is its ID. Four definitions that stayed the same over time are the concepts of conduct, behavior, principle, and opposing. Before the author wrote this chapter, the remaining 12 concepts did not exist in the database; they registered a new growth for Thumoslang.
- Conduct; that means, standardized interaction. | 345
- Behavior; that means, social conduct. | 203
- Principle; that means, the foundation for behaviors. | 1159
- Infringement; that means, exceeding limits. | 9042 | Added yesterday
- Violation; that means, intentional infringement. | 9050 | Added today
- Conflict; that means, violating principles. | 351 | Changed yesterday
- Struggle; that means, being strenuously engaged. | 9041 | Added yesterday
- Opposing; that means, aggressive prevention. | 1057
- Violence; that means, devastating force. | 9038 | Added yesterday
- Fight; that means, opposing through violence. | 9036 | Added yesterday
- Protest; that means, a fight without violence. | 9039 | Added yesterday
- Weapon; that means, a fighting instrument. | 9052 | Added today
- Armed; that means, equipped with weapons. | 9040 | Added yesterday
- Battle; that means, armed fighting. | 9053 | Added today
- Military; that means, armed forces. | 9046 | Added yesterday
- War; that means, battles by opposing military organizations. | 9047 | Added yesterday
Thumoslang 