I very much like the idea of the voluntary abandonment of modern weapons and for soldiers to resort to fist fights and throwing huge rocks at each other. For one thing, it is cheap, and second, nothing brings home the satisfaction of defeating an opponent in hand to hand combat … witness the September 2021 boxing match to be held between Halfthor and Eddie Hall to settle differences. We see it in movies, but it really is the manly thing to do: go primal:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/indian-and-chinese-troops-clash-fistfight-disputed-border
“Dozens of Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a cross-border clash involving fistfights and stone-throwing at a remote but strategically important mountain pass near Tibet, the Indian Army said Sunday according to the Straits Times and BBC. There have been long-running border tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours, with a bitter war fought over India's north-eastern-most state of Arunachal Pradesh in 1962. The two countries have competing claims over their shared 3,400 kilometre (2,100 mile) border. Sometimes stand-offs involve chest-bumping, pushing and shoving, and throwing stones at each other, BBC South Asia Editor Anbarasan Ethirajan reports. The latest tense face-off took place near the Naku La sector in Sikkim, more than 5,000 meters (16,400ft) above sea level in the Himalayas. "Aggressive behaviour by the two sides resulted in minor injuries to troops. It was stone-throwing and arguments that ended in a fistfight," Indian Army Eastern Command spokesman Mandeep Hooda told AFP. The "stand-off" on Saturday at Naku La sector near the 4,572m Nathu La crossing in the north-eastern state of Sikkim - which borders Bhutan, Nepal and China - was later resolved after "dialogue and interaction" at a local level, Hooda said. "Temporary and short duration face-offs between border-guarding troops do occur as boundaries are not resolved," he added. The violent clash is the first between the two countries since 2017, when there was a brawl between Chinese and Indian soldiers near the northwest Indian region of Ladakh. Though both countries send out patrols that often engage in physical stand-offs, no bullet has been fired over the border in the last four decades.”
Chest thumping and fist fights are good primate behaviour, and while this may seem primitive – it is. But better than that, these injuries will usually not result in death, compared to shooting each other. Better yet would be to settle disputes by leaders battling it out. Then we may get fitter leaders, the sorts that would have delighted Plato.