Christopher Hedges: War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

Christopher Hedges discusses how human beings are conditioned to embrace what he calls "the myth of war"; the idea that combat is noble, selfless, and glorious. In his new book War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, which draws on the literature of combat, from Homer and Shakespeare to Erich Maria Remarque and Michael Herr, as well as his firsthand experience, Hedges reveals the reality of war; the destruction of culture, the perversion of human desire, and the embrace, ultimately, of death over life.