For my english class we have to write a paper about War as a social Disease?

Question

What does that mean? I really don't understand. We need different points about it so we can expand on the points.
Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

The term "social disease" has this for one of its definitions:
"A disease having its highest incidence among socioeconomic groups predisposed to it by a given set of adverse living or working conditions."

I really don't understand how this can be applied to war since wars are begun and continued by people of various socioeconomic groups, not all of whom live in "adverse" conditions.

I suppose you could compare war to some of the more physical games that are played -- for example, to football in the US. What comparison points can you think of between those two?

Another point your instructor may have in mind is that it may be addictive to some people, but you'd have to really work on drawing comparisons among several wars (who started them; why were they fought; under what conditions were they ended).

Let us know what you decide.