CHAPTER VI 



THE DECLINING ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND MORAL 

 EFFECTIVENESS OF FORCE 



IN what precedes, we have been concerned with 

 the biological and sociological errors of the 

 philosophy of force, and of the doctrine that war is 

 the cause of human progress. But war — the use 

 of force — is never an end in itself; it is always a 

 means for obtaining some other desired end. In 

 order to imderstand how far force can be effective 

 for securing those ends, economic, social, and moral, 

 for which men strive, it is necessary to examine the 

 instrument itself more critically, and to clear up 

 certain confusions in regard to the nature of force 

 when used in human relations. 



The fundamental confusion, which is especially 

 common in militaristic writings, leads to curious 

 reasoning in a circle. In recent years, an interest- 

 ing shifting of the ground of the militaristic 

 defence of war has taken place. When the advo- 

 cates of the philosophy of force are confronted with 

 the moral arguments against war, they usually 

 take refuge in the thesis that the causes of war 

 are economic and material. But when they are 



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