War Margaret Mead Summary

People, like you and I, make history. But, war has been prevalent throughout our history, and it seems inevitable. Margaret Mead argues that this is due to warfare being a bad invention that we have created for ourselves. She believes that this is the only reason we have war, instead of it being an unavoidable social aspect, or something genetically built in us. I disagree, because war has been around for so long, and I feel that it is human nature to fight with each other

Mead’s opinion is very clear in her article; she believes war is caused by us, and the fact that we invented it. It isn’t a “biological necessity” (1), nor a “sociological inevitability” (1), in her mind. She presents to us an onslaught of facts and findings that back her argument solidly. We are shown groups of people that actually live without warfare, completely. As an example, Mead talks about Eskimos, and how they live together, and, mostly, in peace. They don’t

She touches on the subject of hope, and creating a new invention to replace warfare. When Mead talks of hope, she presents to us a desire; a hidden desire to get rid of war, and replace it with something better and new. I believe the same thing, that war should be eradicated and replaced with a better alternative. People suffer, innocent people die, all the time-- all because of war. We are destroying ourselves. Even though we can’t revert back to less advanced methods of living that the current Eskimo and Pygmy groups survive with, we can try to mimic their warless element of life. This is very unlikely, though, considering that America is almost always at war, and many jobs are required for it. Margaret Mead and I, though we have different ideas about the causes of war, do believe that something should change for the better. War isn’t helping anyone, other than those employed, and it should be erased from