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About this quote

What does it mean?
War is the ultimate spectacle in a society that runs on machines.
In plain terms
War is the biggest show for a machine-driven society.
What can you take from it?
War becomes a spectacle in mechanized cultures.

Where it applies

  • political analysis
  • history
  • conflict resolution

Putting it to work

  • recognize war's spectacle
  • promote peace

Questions to consider

  • Is war a tool or a show?
  • How does tech change war?

Another view

War often stems from complex causes beyond mere spectacle.

More from Lewis Mumford

  1. The clock, not the steam-engine, is the key-machine of the modern industrial age.

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  2. Sport in the sense of a mass-spectacle, with death to add to the underlying excitement, comes into existence when a population has been drilled and regimented …

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  3. Here was my city, immense, overpowering, flooded with energy and light... The world, at that moment , opened before me, challenging me, beckoning me, demanding…

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