A Terrible Love of War2004

"War fosters an impossible collection of opposites: murder, soldierly comradeship, torture, religious conviction, the destruction of the earth, patriotism, annihilation, hope for immortal glory. Wartime seems to propel life to its most vivid, most meaningful level. Engaged in the activity of destruction, its soldiers and its victims discover a profound sense of existing, of being human. The mind withdraws from this paradox, and, indeed, few writers have taken on the task of unlocking the baleful, intoxicating, and necessary force that is war. Instead, the bare fact that war has dominated human history since the earliest records and seems always ready to break out is ignored, condemned, or lamented." "James Hillman, recognized worldwide as a creative innovator in clinical and cultural...