A war doesn’t merely kill off a few thousand or a few hundred thousand young men. It kills off something in a people that can never be brought back. And if a people goes through enough wars, pretty soon all that’s left is the brute, the creature that we–you and I and others like us–have brought up from the slime. John Williams
About This Quote

The speaker is comparing wars to the rebirth of tadpoles, which he compares to the rebirth of a nation. The speaker suggests that wars can bring about a significant change in a society and its people. tadpoles, he explains, hatch from eggs and they look exactly like the previous generation; they look exactly like the previous generation despite the fact that they are born into a completely different environment. The tadpole’s new environment is essentially like an alien planet and not like the pond they came from.

Source: Stoner

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