Me and my soap box! Oh lucky you!

Hope and War

Like most of us I have occasionally tackled the really big questions that being alive and looking around will pose. “War” ranks up among my top 10 questions. Much has been said on a grand scale about the whys and the where fore of war, but I have not heard much about the reasons that soldiers sign up and provide the fodder for the preservation of war. My pondering began here. The road I took started with the most obvious scenario. When faced with emanate attack from a foe who appears to want something you have got, food, water, money or your life, taking up arms to defend your self/family/tribe does appear on the surface to make sense. Unfortunately for those of us living comfortably here in the developed world, this is not were or when we take up arms. Or more rightly spoken, this is not where we send our young off to fight. Rather we pack them of to some distant land. Typically an underdeveloped country that has something we want or don’t want. So why is it that we can talk these young folks into to going? Because we all know that if war was left to anyone over the age of 40, only the really depressed would show up! Secondly unless it was really the first case scenario why would you want to kill someone just like your self. So only a few bullies and their friends would be fighting. Alas this is definitely not the case. Long ago the old guys in the tribe figured out how to whip up the testosterone young men of the tribe into a murderous rage, and promise them the spoils of war like wine women and loot, then pointed them at some foe and war was made possible. So far simple, but this is not all I believe is going on. I believe that hope plays a huge part. I am not talking about the “hope” that any war will be the end of war forever. Grant me that we all see the stupidity of believing war can create peace. No I am talking about the personal belief that an individual can improve his/her odds of staying alive by shooting first. The young are vulnerable in many ways. Give them a grand story of heroic proportions that lets them off the hook or gives them the appearance of winning the prize and you have their attention. Tell them that it is really only their tribe they must protect. The bigger picture is not their concern/ or too complicated for them to grapple with given their lack of experience excreta, excreta. And besides you get to shoot first! And here we come to the kernel that I believe under pins war as a way to solve problems rather than non violence. We all hope that if we shoot first we won’t die. Which is a false hope, whether we shoot first or take a stand peacefully we are all going to die eventually. Shooting first is not going to end the shooting. Not shooting will.

PS the young good looking gal in the pic is Emily, adventurer extraordinaire