Reply #16: Well, Don't Get Too Far into Archaeology, Art, and Literature

[On the Road]

if you want to hold that thesis. Many or most ancient civilizations spent huge amounts of their national income on defensive fortifications right through the renaissance. Many excavated sites show clear damage of violent destruction. Finds of weapons are commonplace. Documents from Greece and Rome have constant reference to war. Artwork depicting warfare is common, as are stories, poems, and plays.

To believe historical wars are fabrications requires that all that evidence is fabricated as well. At some point the belief comes solipsistic. No one can disprove solipsism, but it's considered a sterile theory because evidence from history and the natural world is universally dismissed and the believer is left with only his or her thoughts and imagination.

Now if you want to go back to hunting and gathering societies there is a somewhat better argument. But most of those hunting and gathering societies were destroyed by more militarized ones.