Book Review - The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War by David Livingstone Smith - Page 5

There were a few things not addressed to my satisfaction in The Most Dangerous Animal. While a fair bit of time was devoted to the use of language to deceive, especially to deceive ourselves, relatively little was said about the role of religious, cultural, and political leaders in deceiving the masses. And even less was said about the role of economics in motivating these leaders to deceive themselves and us. Perhaps these require too much specificity, straying too far from his broad focus on the bedrock of human nature as it relates to war in general. Still, the role of economics in leading a relatively small number of people (and corporations) to deceive the masses, to exploit the vulnerabilities of the masses, for their own benefit, needs to be discussed. And it would fit right in.

Also, he devotes the last few chapters to an exploration of the mechanisms that allow us to deceive ourselves, so that we learn to recognize and thus avoid falling prey to those elements of our own nature that lead us to war. His approach, it seems, is to lift the veil, so to speak, and show us our own nature. Perhaps he will follow this book up with another, but I was really hoping for more insight into how we can, collectively, rise above our warlike nature. Self-knowledge is an individual endeavor, whereas war is a collective one. Though there are a few hopeful comments scattered throughout the text, it is only in the last chapter that Smith brings in a very cautious, subdued, almost forced, optimism.

He is wary of substituting "platitudes for thinking." The following, near the end, is perhaps the most optimistic statement to be found in this book:

If this analysis is anywhere near correct, then our best hope of stopping war is stopping this kind of self-deception, or at least becoming intolerant of it. If we do not take refuge in illusion, we will find it much more difficult to go to war.

Indeed, if his well argued analysis is correct, we all should read this book. There is obviously much more to be said, and much left to be discovered about human nature and about war. In a time when war, though fought far away, is pursued at great cost to both the imagined enemies and the soldiers who fight them, the light this book sheds on human nature, both on our warlike nature and on our natural repulsion to war, makes The Most Dangerous Animal a very relevant and important read.

Article Author: Abram Bergen

Abram Bergen is a logophile, thinker, reader, and writer. His research/writing interests include gender and sexuality issues, hybridity and identity politics, secular ethics, and ecosensitive technologies and lifestyles. …

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