War continues

War never ends with peace, but with victory and defeat. At least, that’s how it has always been. Carl von Clausewitz, in his famous treatise from the 19th century, argued that war was simply a way to resolve disputes between states when diplomacy proved insufficient. Today, this is no longer the case. Contemporary wars are not fought to subdue an adversary that cannot be otherwise reduced, but as a continuation of a state of permanent tension that no longer foresees winners or losers. Thus, the war continues.

It is no longer a war of men against men — not forgetting women and, unfortunately, children — but a war of weapons against weapons, in an ever-increasing technological escalation. The next conflicts will be fought in space with guided weapons, prolonged indefinitely precisely because they are devoid of the idea of an ending. Collateral damage, of course, will not be lacking: missiles and debris will continue to fall on the heads of unsuspecting civilians who are walking or resting. It is striking to see how even in the camps of the desperate in Ceuta, one must fight out of necessity or for release, as if misery and toil were not enough to quell human aggressiveness.

If we were to count algebraically the days of war in the world over the last fifty years, we would notice an uninterrupted conflict, elevated to an irreplaceable necessity. Even those who fight for peace end up waging war against their enemies who fight for war. Cold, hot, hybrid, asymmetric: call it what you will, it is still relentlessly war. With hands, with stones, with bronze, with iron, and now with the web and digital systems.

Fortunately, the warrior occasionally rests. And receives the honors of a rich accommodation: in villas on happy islands or in the majestic tombs of antiquity. What is war for if not to build the good retreat of warriors or a superb architecture? If you want war, wage war and do not seek the excuses of peace.

Culture is everything that transcends the ordinary actions we take to survive; this is where its beauty lies and its intelligent ability to read into events. War also generates literature and art: it serves to build heroes and antiheroes, to give history a sense and mythology its place in the imagination. But the war of weapons against weapons is turning into a cold game, incredibly costly and frighteningly dangerous. Just as in naval battles ships are sunk without sailors, in technological warfare the measure is on intelligence and cunning rather than on audacity.

It is the eternal duel between Achilles and Odysseus: and in the end, Odysseus wins, even if he is a half-hero.