The myth of Mars

Or how militarism will not save us from war

Since ancient times, human beings have banded together around their myths. Stories and creeds that have allowed us to interpret the world around us, the principles that govern us, and our place in the vastness of the universe. Many of these myths now live only in the pages of books or in the voices of those who, in recounting them, strenuously seek to reconnect with a past that is often lost but not forgotten. Nevertheless, today's world continues to be steeped in myths, both ancient and modern. One of the most fiercely persistent and pervasive myths in our lives is that of war and militarism, a love story perhaps more tragic than that of Eurydice and Orpheus. Embodied by Mars or Bellona by the Romans, Montu or Bastet by the Egyptians, Huitzilopochtli by the Aztecs, and by the many other deities who adorned themselves with the dreadful crown of Gods of War. Today, their rituals linger only as relics. The Gods have been cast away, lambs and slaves are no longer sacrificed on adorned altars, and statues are no longer erected to exalt their glory. Yet the myths that nourished them, the sacrifices that were offered to them and the misery that followed them are still among us, casting shadows on our ability to seek alternatives for our future.

 Si vis pacem, para bellum 

‘If you want peace, prepare for war.’ It is with this maxim, or in the spirit of it, that the rulers of most of the Western world reaffirm today the creed of militarism. War is now portrayed as an inevitable outcome, an entity whose logics and prerogatives must be satisfied in order to ensure the prosperity and well-being that, we are promised, we will be made party to when the time is right. Therefore, militarisation is once again presented as the only ‘solution’ to the imminent and ongoing disaster. Today's militarists try to hide behind speeches about humanitarianism, security and the defence of democracy, but in reality they show themselves to be just as unscrupulous as the warmongers of the past. In order to increase the enormous profits of the military industry, they are prepared to take away from the majority of people all those services, securities and essential rights that we have won through decades of struggle.

The European rearmament programme and the increase to 5% of GDP for military spending imposed by NATO are only the most recent and dramatic manifestations of a process that has been ongoing for decades. As a result of continuous growth over a decade,In fact, military spending reached new heights in 2024, exceeding the levels reached at the end of the Cold War. This global arms race is not generating prospects for a just and lasting peace, contrary to what the propagandists and politicians of the European Union would have us believe. On the contrary, it is closely linked to the increasingly explosive, violent and enduring nature of geopolitical and social conflicts in recent years, from the genocide in Gaza to the relentless war in Ukraine. Their self-serving complicity in fomenting and exacerbating these conflicts is evidenced by their continued support for the regimes of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and many other states engaged in the most lethal campaigns of oppression of our century. 

The end of the ‘Pax Americana’

Behind this period of growing military tension lies a profound change in the global geopolitical landscape. The shift of the economic centre of gravity towards the East has deeply undermined the Western neoliberal economic model and the unequal power relations it had managed to impose on the globalised market. The advent of new imperialist powers, such as China and Russia, now represents the greatest external threat to the hegemonic interests of US capital and its European lackeys. 

This transformation on the global stage both feeds on and deepens the crises of Western capitalism. The latter, after the 2008 crisis, has proven not only too fragile but also too inefficient to cope with its own contradictions and maintain its unchallenged dominance of the world market. For decades Western elites have hypocritically concealed their domination behind a policy of “peace” and international cooperation, but this is no longer capable of upholding the status quo. The international institutional system is completely paralysed, and its inaction when faced with the ongoing humanitarian crises is the final nail in the coffin of its credibility. War is once again becoming the messiah of a ruling class that is clinging like a parasite to the battered body of humanity and the soul of the planet in order to escape its own obsolescence.

“War is the continuation of politics by other means.”

Within this very context, this famous quote, taken from Von Clausewitz's On War, showcases its relevance today. The geopolitical order established after the Second World War never aimed to overcome the contradictions of the existing system, capitalism based on the nation-state. Its only real purpose was to provide a framework within which geopolitical competition between the great powers could be mediated before erupting into nuclear war. Since the end of the Cold War, with the advent of US monopoly over international politics, these institutions have gradually abandoned this mediating function in order to act as henchmen for Western industrialists and financiers.

The rhetoric on human rights, peace treaties and cooperation summits has served to conceal a policy of plunder and exploitation that has often been just as violent and ruthless as that of the old colonial empires. Two emblematic cases of this reality are the ‘war on terror’ and the ‘war on drugs.’ The first justified the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the growing destabilisation of the Middle East. The second imposed a regime of abuse and violence on the whole of Latin America, as well as on the most vulnerable sections of our own societies. Now that these “peaceful” instruments are no longer able to facilitate this policy, the Western elite is committed to dismantling them in order to resort to other means. This reflects the continuity between peace policy and war policy mentioned by Von Clausewitz: the lucrative and expansionist ambitions of the actors in the field remain the same, what changes is how many lives they are willing to sacrifice to achieve them. 

“Capitalism carries war like clouds carry rain” 

It would be wrong to believe that militarism is solely a response to an external crisis, as both progressive and conservative politicians and intellectuals would have us believe. As expressed in this quote from French socialist and anti-militarist Jean Jaurès, war is not something external to our system, but rather arises from its very own darkest depths. In a period of profound socio-economic, climatic and geopolitical uncertainty, militarism serves to guarantee the growth of the large capitals on which the maintenance of the system itself depends. It is no coincidence that countries such as Russia and China, where capitalism had to take root much more quickly and brutally than in the West, are among the first to rely on military investment to strengthen their national economies and project their interests on the international stage. They hide the weakness of their regimes behind military parades, shiny missiles and bloody repressions. In many countries still suffering under the yoke of colonial legacy, these new powers swoop like vultures on the carcasses left behind by centuries of Western warmongering. 

In fact, the United States itself has maintained its status as a superpower with the largest military-industrial complex in the world, trapping itself in a debt crisis whose cost is consciously and systematically offloaded onto the most impoverished fringes of society. Furthermore, “defence” spending manifests itself in the increasing militarisation of all areas of the state, especially where political and social tensions exist. The danger of this process, in a period of growing crisis and polarisation, is becoming increasingly evident even within so-called democratic countries, where dissent is subject to increasingly violent countermeasures. Just think of the events of recent months in California, where Trump responded to popular protests against his campaign of persecution and deportation of migrant populations by sending in the National Guard and the Marines. 

The myth of Peace 

The authoritarian drift we are witnessing on a global scale goes hand in hand with the ongoing process of militarisation. At their core, these phenomena are dictated by the dynamics of exploitation and plunder that are intrinsic to the capitalist system of production. Its inability to resolve its own crises is a direct result of its fundamental rule: maximise profits at any cost. Neoliberalism has enabled the greatest transfer of capital from the bottom, from the poor and working classes to the wealthy, in the history of humanity. Cuts to healthcare and education, real wage reductions and rising public debt are the means by which the most profitable heist in history is being carried out. But this cannot satisfy the thirst for profits, even if the cost is our health, our lives and our future.

The peace that has been sold to us in recent decades conceals a daily and insidious struggle, between those who have everything and want more and those who have nothing and cling to scraps: a class struggle in which one side has laid down its weapons while the other has no hesitation in striking the weakest and most vulnerable. This is perhaps the myth that most pervades and holds back our society, the myth of a non-existent peace, of a social order that is peaceful only in the passivity of its victims. The wars unfolding now and those yet to come, where people of all faiths, genders, and nations are being consumed on to the logics of profit, must force us to dispel this myth. Because the reality is that we are already at war and we can no longer afford to stand by and watch. 

The present is bleeding and the future is more uncertain than ever. The Fates weave the web, but they themselves do not know how much thread remains. Militarism pushes us ever closer to the gates of hell, and Charon already covets the payment that will be owed to him. I can only wonder what is to be done, hearing the sound of drums thundering in the air? What is to be done, seeing blood covering the orange groves and wheat fields? Can we really continue to climb the mountain like Sisyphus, bearing the weight of our doubts, our fears, our prejudices every day, or like Prometheus must we risk everything, storm the heavens, rob the gods, to light a small torch of hope for all humanity? Will we succumb to our myths or will they succumb to us?

The time has come to react. The time has come to break with the politics of the ruling classes, with their constant attempts to divide the oppressed and trigger wars among the poor. The time has come to declare war on war, militarism and all those who profit from it.

The myth of Mars