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Robert Nisbet

Author

The Military Community

Winter 1973 | Essays

In the mosaic of values that is Western social philosophy, war has played no small role in shaping the image of community. We are perhaps more likely to think of war as an element of antimorality and anticommunity, but the evidence is all too clear that from earliest times war and its processes have been associated with some of the most cherished of Western values: community, individuality, freedom, fraternity, and release from authorities grown tyrannous and suffocating.