orwell revisited

i was trying to find my last year's post of leschi.
instead i came upon an exerpt i took from orwell's 1984.

it was powerful to me then, and continues to be so.
so i think i'll repost it to keep it alive:

"The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. Even when weapons of war are not actually destroyed, their manufacture is still a convenient way of expending labor power without producing anything that can be consumed. . .In principle the war effort is always so planned as to eat up any surplus that might exist after meeting the bare needs of the population. In practice the needs of the populatoin are always underestimated, with the result that there is a chronic shortage of half the necessities of life; but this is looked on as an advantage. . . War, it will be seen, not only accomplishes the necessary destruction, but accomplishes it in a psychologically acceptable way. In principle it would be quite simple to waste the surplus labor of the world by building temples and pyramids, by digging holes and filling them up again, or even by producing vast quantities of goods and then setting fire to them. But this would provide only the economic and not the emotional basis for a heirarchical society."

couldn't have put it any better myself.
war squanders resources all-the-while maintaining a large schism in the existing heirachical society. whereas it could be used in some arbitrary cause to strengthen a culture's belief in it's leaders, war, for the most part, already demands that fealty.
granted it can spawn leaps in technology, but it also creates a population decline. i'm not sure which way i want to lean on this topic. whether this is good or not. populations stabilize, more often than not, the less educated are rid of, but cultural and genetic richness is to be lost.
especially with modern wars where one side greatly overpowers the other.
however, i think his greatest point is that this is an acceptable way for those with authority to squander resources without being questioned.
well... nowadays it's not so much the case, but i think there are enough ill-educated, brainwashed people out there where it can be stood for by a nation.
go patriotism in all its glory...