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Poetry · Chapter
CXXXIX explained
A brief chapter that critiques the naive belief that the invention of increasingly destructive weapons will lead to universal peace, comparing such thinkers to those who would predict an end to farming due to improved agricultural tools.
What happens
A brief chapter that critiques the naive belief that the invention of increasingly destructive weapons will lead to universal peace, comparing such thinkers to those who would predict an end to farming due to improved agricultural tools.
Key passages
“Men who expect universal peace through invention of destructive weapons of war are no wiser than one who, noting the improvement of agricultural implements, should prophesy an end to the tilling of the soil.”
Those who believe that creating more powerful weapons will bring about global peace are just as foolish as someone who thinks better farming tools will stop people from farming.
This is the entirety of the chapter, presenting a single satirical analogy.