"What is more immoral than war?"

Marquis de Sade’s question, “What is more immoral than war?” presents a provocative challenge to the moral frameworks that underpin societies. By framing war as the ultimate immorality, de Sade demands a re-examination of human values, institutions, and justifications for violence on a mass scale. War, as an organized and deliberate act by nations or factions, involves the sanctioned killing of individuals, the destruction of property, and the infliction of suffering on combatants and civilians alike. Often, war is justified under banners of righteousness, defense, glory, or necessity. However, de Sade’s interrogation strips away these justifications, exposing war as a deliberate suspension of all the moral codes societies otherwise uphold: prohibitions against murder, theft, and cruelty.

The question invites readers to consider not only the direct consequences of war, dead bodies, orphaned children, ruined cities, but also the broader moral abdication involved when war is declared. When the machinery of war is set into motion, moral norms are dramatically rewritten. Actions considered unthinkable in peace become obligatory or even celebrated. In this sense, war represents a collective descent into sanctioned immorality, distinct from isolated acts of individual cruelty or evil. The violence is not random; it is systematic, industrial, and often justified under the cloak of patriotism or progress.

De Sade’s skepticism about the morality of war pushes against societal double standards, critiquing the eagerness with which leaders and citizens alike can shift ethical boundaries to accommodate political goals. His question does not allow for comfort in the face of tradition or authority, it presents war as an ultimate ethical failing. By holding war up as the benchmark of immorality, he challenges humanity to recognize complicity and to question the narratives that transform mass violence into moral duty, begging for a rethinking of what it means to act ethically within the constructs of society.