Thought assignment opinions:
1.Because I have been raised under typical ideals I personally think that just war is possible and does happen. I also think that our leaders love to make us think that the war is a just one in order to get their way.
2.I do not personally think that anyone understands war, because it is such an awkward mess. The people who even have a chance at understanding war are those fighting it. While the rest of us think of it as more of a gung ho kind of thing almost like sports teams.
War is a powerful thing. We are taught right from the start that war is also a bad thing. I can say with probably 99% accuracy that is IS a bad thing. But we are also taught not to try and judge war because we have not ever fought ourselves. My brain starts out thinking that war is bad, but I am also taught not to have pre-assumptions about war. It is on this subject that my brain nearly tears itself in half.
Everyone knows about how terrible and horrible war is, so I won't talk about it very much, however part of me (I am convinced the crazy part) thinks that somehow, war can be a good force. (Yes I realize that this is my testosterone speaking)
Here is one half of my brain's argument:
Looking at history and looking at advances from military conflict, it is fairly obvious that nearly all of our medical inventions have come from war. Many things such as: Radar, The Microwave, Superglue, Penicillin, Satellites, The Jeep, Orange juice from concentrate, Plastics, Computers (as we know them, cold war), The Internet, Cellphones, to name a few.
Some people will argue that "Most" of our inventions come from wars, But it is evident that some of the most important and taken for granted of inventions came out of war.
Every time I start thinking about how "good" war can be, I have to backtrack and look at how bad war can be. I try and read about what people who have actually been in war went through, but I acknowledge that I will never understand what combat is like unless I actually experience it, but that won't keep me from Trying to understand.
The third half of my brain wonders whether it really matters if war is good or bad. It tells me that politicians will fool us or will drag us into wars whether we like it or not. That half argues that war no matter how bad it may be, will forever be fought.
"I don't know whether war is an interlude during peace, or peace an interlude during war." ~Georges Clemenceau
4 comments:
Heraclitus said at the beginning of Western thought
in ancient Greece, "War is the father of us all." Our wars with the exception of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War were fought on the soil of others and our people
do not realize that we have never in thiscountry have a period of peace that lasted longer than twenty-five years.
So, was Heraclitus right?
Most interesting site.
Count Sneaky
Forgive the typos. The Count is tired. Count Sneaky
If you read only one book on the psychology of war, read James Hillman's brilliant book,"A Terrible Love of War."
published 2004 by Penguin Press,ISBN 1-59420-011-4.It will stimulate much thought. Count Sneaky
I know many people that would say the same thing, "war is the father of us all". America is fairly aggressive and military-based in principle and in action. You might want to take a look at the documentary War in America in the Opinion section (1hr long) it talk much about the subject of war and America.
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