Querela pacis
Rulers have always justified the inevitability of their wars by noble goals. Since the end the World War II not a single day has passed that would not be marked by this sort of noble slaughter taking place somewhere on the Earth. Gradually, rulers stopped listening to philosophers, theologians, artists and scientists in case their ideas and attitudes would cast doubt on this august inevitability. …
…The Dutch humanist Erasmus Roterodamus was probably the first thinker to express an outright rejection of all the justificatory noble goals of monarchs. In his two treatises - Querela pacis and Dulce bellum inexpertis - he defined war as the ultimate evil, the only real reason for which was the greed of the powerful. According to Erasmus, the absurd killing of innocent people could not be justified by any ideology or religion. Victorious soldiers know this only too well, being unable to find any excuse foe their recent murdering.…
Vladimír Godár
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