Thucydides writes The Peloponnesian War not just to record a war that will be known to all time but also to understand human beings. Following his commentary, he expresses his interpretation of how this war reflects humanity and how even though time changes these are truths that humans can’t escape.
War reveals how inhumane humans are. Many people talk of peace and loving ones home and neighbor but there are civil wars and feuds between families. The moment something is harmful to one self such as a plague or loss of wealth, blood means nothing, friends don’t take care of one another and the world that we build and cover with a shiny coating is in reality revealed for what it is. There is only self-interest.
In times of peace people trust one another, and the moment that trust is betrayed in difficult times, anger and revenge is the driving force of the savageness. This self-interest drives humans to stop peace and start war. Hermocrates, the representative of Sicily, notes that it is their own “individual interests” that led them to war and while they need peace, they will certainly go to war again if they don’t get what they feel to be a “fair agreement.” Wars start and restart for these reasons and in reality “No one is forced to engage in it by ignorance” and that we as human beings feel that “the gain appears greater than the danger.”
Humans act on this gain and want. They will kill and flip their morals, call them by different names and destroy what they said during times of peace to be what they stand for. “Words had to change their ordinary meaning” is how Thucydides describes this flip and chaos. No one trusted anyone else, their minds changed by the climate of war and this lack of separation of emotions to political decisions causes many to be killed mercilessly.
The moment people feel neglected or are in want of something is the moment that defines us. Fear of that loss or want of that gain is what causes us to lash out and break what we once treasured. Others fear this change and so react accordingly. In the end, no one trusts one another. No one cares for another. Trust in humans is a difficult thing to find and almost seems impossible to keep.