There is a saying: “What if they gave a war and nobody came?” This is saying that people will no longer care about something to the point of death, or hate something to the point of death. That would have implications not only for war, but also for daily life. Not infrequently we are called upon to take risks for these reasons and to this extent and we do them willingly. A common one is travel. We take the kids to see grandma but subject our family to all the risks of going 75 miles/hour in heavy interstate traffic. Our love, our care to support family relationships easily banishes from our minds the stark risks involved. We do it because we care; clearly experience with human nature shows that war will always exist so long as people feel that they have fundamental stakes in the battle. It is a way to show symbolically as well as in the flesh the unlimited nature of commitment. So we had best hope that wars do not end so long as stakes of this sort exist. Otherwise that would indicate a monumental shift in the nature of man—one in which he no longer could be counted upon to have and affirm in significant ways solid commitment.
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