If wolves and chimpanzees can usually resolve conflicts within the group without massive blood-letting, why are modern human communities so wracked by violent crime? And, while it is true that in wars between groups of carnivorous mammals, the death rate can be very high, the numbers are only a small fraction of the human beings killed in brush wars that barely make the newspapers. Why, then, are human wars so devastating?
In this ten minute audio–I hope to graduate to video soon–I describe how I made a pretty good Serbian dinner, despite several mistakes. If anyone would like written recipes, I should be happy to supply them.
If there are any remaining students, please sign in now…Informal imperatives, pronouns with informal imperatives, asking directions, booking rooms….
The conventional position taken in academic discourse is that war can only be excused in extreme cases usually defined by one party’s assertion of higher motive. If repetition of a lie confers truth, then the justification for modern wars is unassailable.
Bits of this rewritten and expanded section were posted earlier.
This song, which inspired Lawrence Block’s novel “When the Sacred Ginmill Closes,” is not for young people or the faint of heart, but it is carefully composed. Block and Van Ronk were good friends, and both were alcoholics.
These paragraphs, now at the beginning of the chapter, were inspired by a drive to the Hosios Loukas Monastery in Central Greece
Our noble ancestors, we should always bear in mind, were never quite civilized people. They were descended from Goths and Saxons, Franks, Normans and Lombard. To the extent they were civilized, it was the result of the Christian Church and the study of the classics.
