Apr 10 2012: Heroism is central to the human condition. So is cowardice, so is war, so is fraternizing in the front ranks. But it's getting better. You're right, Sid (although are you sure about the pacifist "Stone Age"?) and so is Steven Pinker. Today is the 95th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, as we Canadians remember it. In that one battle, when Canada's population was less than a quarter of what it is today, 3,598 Canadian soldiers lost their lives. In one battle. Over the past ten years, the "war in Afghanistan" has claimed 158 Canadian soldiers' lives. Our hearts with their families, but hysteria is also central to the human condition.
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A comment on Conversation: Is war inevitable? Is it a natural state of human affairs or an aberration, absent from our distant past and perhaps, our future as well?