A few days ago, overwhelmed by the endless violence and wars in our world, I wrote a brief and simple email to a number of Listservs where I listed a number of different adjectives preceding the word “war.”  I did this somewhat impulsively as a catharsis for my own angst and anger at the fact that “wars” and violence had become commonplace.  In one way or another, the word “war” had become part of our daily vernacular and popular culture. We had arrived at a place in language where virtually any conflict, disagreement, or contention was being labeled “war.”

I stated I was concerned that extensive number and widespread use of adjectives preceding the word “war” would somehow make us immune to its meaning — its horrible and tragic meaning.  As a result, we would find ourselves accustomed to its use, and habituated to its significance. I felt under these circumstances, national policies and decisions regarding war could then be pursued without a full recognition or awareness of consequences. As we have seen, it is easy to start a war, and difficult to end one.  When “war” in actuality, or in linguistic use, becomes a reflexive response to any contention, we are closed to other solutions.

Along the way of my explorations, I added with some degree of cynicism, that there were even “futile wars.”  I noted this term seems to have escaped the vocabulary of our politicians.  A few years ago, I published an article entitled: The United States of America: A “Culture of War.”  I proposed that a cultural ethos had developed that was socializing war as a way-of-life in our society.  I have attached a graphic figure from this article that captures the complexity of this processes involved as back and forth across ethos, macrosocial institutions, microsocial institutions, and individual psychological levels of organization and influence.  We had become a society in which “war” was now considered an acceptable — even reflexive – response to disagreements.

As I proceeded with these thoughts, I began to list the different kinds of “war,” that had become part of our language use.  I added a request to readers to make any additions they felt were appropriate.  I expected only a few.  But, in fact, email brought many replies that offered additions. We had, indeed, from a sociolinguistic perspective, developed a massive “lexicon of wars.” And, in my opinion, because of our indiscriminate use of the term “war,” we had become immune to its meaning.

I must admit, as I gathered the terms, I found myself “shocked” by the widespread use of the word “war.”  Was it possible that within the context of our global era, replete with its increased inter-dependencies, we had come to find the tensions of competition for resources and survival itself, pushing us toward “wars” at all levels of interactions. In my opinion, a “versus” mentality had arisen that was pitting different people, organizations, nations, and products against one another in a win-lose arena. The tragedy of this situation, as we all know, is that there are never winners and losers in any war, only casualties and lifetime legacies of sadness, anger, and revenge. Thus, I share with you now, an updated and more comprehensive “lexicon of wars.”

Table 1:  A Lexicon of Wars

bank wars,

biological wars,

border wars

cab wars

cancer wars

civil wars,

cold wars

colonial wars

communication wars

corporate wars,

culture wars,

cyber wars,

diet wars

drug wars

endless wars

ethnic wars

family wars

financial wars,

food wars

gang wars

gas wars

gasoline wars,

girl wars

global wars

happy wars

holy wars

hot wars

ideological wars

just wars (jus ad bellum) 

language wars

low-intensity wars

                                               media wars                                                   

neighbor wars

nuclear wars

oil wars

parking wars

pizza wars

price wars

product wars,

race wars

regional wars,

religious wars

resource wars

restaurant wars

secret wars

shadow wars,

star wars

tribal wars

unjust wars

war to end war

wars against terrorism,

wars on poverty,

wars to end all wars

water wars

whale wars

word wars

world wars