For Hanson-Carnage and Culture, I agree with the theme of reason being an important aspect in comparison to technology. This is because without reason technology cannot aid overcoming social problems. Considering the Mexico battle, despite the ability of Spaniards to use advanced levels of technology, they lost in the battle. As the Spanish fought, they paid more focus on their higher levels of technology, which made them to look down upon the opponents. Unfortunately, they could not win the battle because the opponents used reason instead of technology to fight them back (Hanson, 2002). Moreover, reason and war are interlinked elements. In this, production of war weapons and machinery has to take into consideration of several factors, which include social, political, and cultural aspects of societies and community.
Further, capitalism is directly linked to funding of wars instead of enhancing communism. This is evidenced from activities of nations such as United States and Athens, which have shown a closer linkage between war and capitalism. These nations have focused extremely on planning on issues related to war and having a low regard for issues, which are associated with social functions. This includes formulation of law and disciplinary measures, which act as the main guiding principles for soldiers as they engage in fights. On the same note, individualism is highly evidenced in battles, which the capitalist nations are involved. However, the wars are based on the use of culture rather than adoption of technology. Nevertheless, technology is developed to strengthen the western bloc with a strong consideration of the culture. This makes the western bloc to adopt reason prior to technology.
With reference to Lynn-Battle debate, I agree with fact that war is conceptualized in different aspects such as function, aesthetic, and outlook depending on the nation. This occurs since different nations have different cultures and they uphold their cultural values and norms in different ways. This includes taking into consideration of aesthetic values, legal concepts, social values, and principles, which are adopted in different formats, in society.
As Lynn argues, the war had an impact in Europe during the 19th Century. Culture was the main source of the impact. This is because culture influenced how the military activities and functions were conducted during the war. Further, culture contributed significantly towards the success of war encounters (Lynn, 2004). This supports the earlier believe that reason is more significant that technology towards success in war. This is because nations, which had a strong reason and believe in culture they, had the ability to success in war. However, military practices during the war had an impact on the economy and humanity.
The ability of culture to enhance attainment of success in war was evidenced in the Egyptian war. In this, The Egyptian military culture had several inherent cultural problems, which would have contributed towards making it difficult for the soldiers to defeat the Arab militaries. However, Egyptian commander was quick enough to identify the key cultural issues, which would have made his army not to attain victory in the battle. This provided a room for the formulation of effective strategies and solutions, which contributed towards attainment of better cultural practices for the Egyptian army, as well as victory over Arab militaries. Therefore, technology is not a tool for winning battle if reason is not applied in wars. On the same note, cultural practices play a significant role in determining the success of soldiers in war.
ISBN: 0385720386. Indiana University.
Lynn, J. A. (2004). Battle: A History of Combat and Culture. New York: Basic Books
Publishers.
