In the past, companies competed for the favours of the state. Now it is the other way round. The impact of the long peace on the social order is more difficult to predict. A peace policy was adopted by the Ming emperors and the Tokugawa shoguns precisely to reduce the risks of change. It will be different for us.
Sport is one obvious substitute for battle.
The time, money and the attention it attracts seem to grow all the time. The rise of the sports superstar has perhaps only just begun. The time is not yet ripe for Michael Jordan to run for office, but it is a fair bet that one of his successor superstars will be president of the US in the first half of the next century. Business is another possible outlet for male aggression. Newspaper layouts which put the sport and business sections together recognise the similarity.