So much of the history of political and social development has been around the empowerment of the individual we sometimes fail to recognize that leaders are individuals too. We have argued so long trying to understand why a 100,000 men would follow one man into a war we have not looked long enough at one why man would want to lead 100,000 men into war.
The idea that they are all out for personal gain is too pat, too simple and hardly covers all the ways in which men and women have gone to battle. Nor can we say they go to battle to defend as it is painfully obvious many times we start wars without provocation.
Once we see human beings as animals and get rid of the stupidity of religion and superstition, the reasons for people fighting become obvious because although we use our minds in war we lose a major part of them to engage in war. We are working on an instinct so deep we can never change it until our DNA changes because it isn’t about survival, or territory but about who we are and what our standing is in the body politic of the community.
The reason Spartan women gave their shields to their men was simple – emotional blackmail. The same keys that leaders have used for thousands of years. The rights of the individual are a fight for people to think for themselves and not as a group. It is in fact, a fight for peace.