I’ll first start with the first text “The Moral Equivalent of War”, by William James. I found James’ beliefs quite interesting, particularly the fact that he believes that agreements should be able to be made, and that warfare really isn’t necessary, and it’s hard to disagree with that. Another aspect I found interesting was how James states that “War is, in short, is a permanent human obligation… The only alternative is “degeneration” (pg. 2).” He is essentially talking about militarism, and how it’s lead many to believe that war is the only option to have noticeable change. For the second text “Can men live in a peaceful society?”, by Eric MacKnight, I found multiple aspects of this text interesting, the first aspect being how women from bourgeois society generally gravitated towards ‘bad boys’ with bulging muscles, despite the fact that a sizeable portion of these individuals were actually horrible people. Part of this is allegedly to blame on the boredoms of bourgeois life, which supposedly lead to people engaging in wild behaviors that were against societal norms. The fact that many people were starting to stray from the norms of masculinity surprised me, especially in this context. Overall, I found both of these texts equally interesting to read about in class.