https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G2FH69VZ

The War Brain

By Leif Occultus

Genre: Nonfiction / Politics / War

Reviewed by Philip Zozzaro

 

An in-depth and provocative exploration into the depths of human nature The War Brain examines the incessant call to arms that is programmed into the hardwiring of the human brain. Author Leif Occultus posits a fascinating theory for why human nature resorts to war and then cites many examples throughout history, which, while bloody and destructive, often led to technological and humanitarian advances for the world.

 

The popular history of the US Civil War held that the war was fought over Slavery, yet some “Lost Cause” advocates hold that the battle between the Union and Confederacy revolved around states’ rights. The War Brain is more concerned with the fighting and the weapons utilized in brother killing brother. In war, the objective is survival and victory. As Author Leif Occultus brilliantly postulates, the need for survival leads to innovative thinking in order to gain an advantage. Despite a death toll in the hundreds of thousands, the use of ironclad warships and repeating rifles during pitched battles and the anesthesia inhaler used on injured soldiers could have been worth it. The machinations of the War Brain have been wreaking havoc on earth going back to the birth of Democracy in Greece.

 

The sustainability of empires has often hinged on war. The Roman Empire believed peace was achieved through strength and its emperors led military campaigns of invasion and plunder that spread the kingdom throughout most of Europe. The perversion of certain faiths led to crusades and other wars of conquest, yet the War Brain comforted itself with the creation of better armor and gunpowder.

 

The 20th Century became one of the bloodiest centuries with two global conflicts fought only two decades apart. By the time World War I concluded, airplanes, submarines and tanks had been utilized in the “War to end all Wars.” The dual bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 officially brought World War II to a close while ushering in the nuclear age which factored into the Cold War standoff between the United States and Soviet Union. The War Brain will accept a stalemate as an outcome as long as progress lives on. As credibly illustrated by Occultus, the War Brain is shown to be the alpha conspirator in sowing chaos and dissent. The salient points of the author’s argument are in how the rush to war can overwhelm an individual’s logic and propaganda wins hearts and minds.

 

The War Brain is calculating while everyone else is merely a pawn to be moved on the chessboard. One of the crucial takeaways from the author’s work is that the War Brain desires automatons not free thinkers. The senselessness of war is often talked about in the aftermath of lengthy and bloody conflicts, whether they were fought in the 19th century (Civil War) or merely decades ago (Rwanda, Afghanistan).

 

The well-researched and articulate arguments of author Leif Occultus provide a logical reason for the madness occurring since time immemorial. The subjugation of free will as relayed by Occultus is poignant, yet the author provides room for positivity in elucidating how people can and need to fight their worst impulses and rip out the corrupt wiring in their system. Occultus’s treatise on the combative side of humanity evokes one of the memorable lines from the movie War Games, ”The only winning move is not to play.”

 

Leif Occultus has penned a compelling book that will make people ponder the futility of war.