The Principles of Fighting: Attaining Moral Objectives by Fighting Well

Only through fighting can certain moral objectives be attained. Within lie the principles of fighting, illustrated by the lives of some of those -- Caesar, Richelieu, Talleyrand, Napoleon, Bill Gates, and others -- who have applied them best. Fighting has gotten a bad name; it should not be so. Fighting itself is neither moral nor immoral; only its object can be said to be so. Was Caesar immoral to end oligarchic rule in the Roman Empire, Richelieu feudalism in France? Only if you think the oligarchy of the late Roman republic, and late French feudalism, good. We may count the ability to fight well, when applied to a just cause, among the virtues. To be moral is not to fight no one; to be moral is to fight those who vitiate life and civilization. As Richelieu observed, sparing certain lives “causes the death of a great many others.” In computer simulations of groups, notes the eminent zoologist Richard Dawkins, “nasty” behavioral strategies flourish only while “softy” strategies exist; once the softy strategies die out, so, too, do the nasty ones. That the moral are far less willing to fight than the immoral has always hurt societies; the moral would do far better to follow revanchism, a policy of retaliation. Fighting is one of the means by which to restore the constraint of reciprocity to modern life. Our chief concern should be for, first life, then civilization; fighting may foster life and civilization, and not fighting harm them. If you truly wish to make the world a better place, you should sometimes fight.