Does war and competition generate as well as reflect belief in a society? Is it the mechanism by which periods of stability are generated, by forcing us to test our capabilities and develop means for survival?
Is peace ultimately conducive to stability, or does it inevitably produce long term instability? Does long peace actually drive people to want to reset the level of societal distribution of outcomes and make us want to tear down our structures? I should read The Great Leveler. And consider whether Frank Herbert was actually identifying an essential property in human psychology?
Making Nobody Happy 