"War does not determine who is right - only who is left" ~ Bertrand Russell
During a time of war, we often question the motives and reasons that led to this point. Fighting for freedom? Fighting to defend themselves? Fighting to defend the defenseless? But do we really know what we're fighting for? We're told we're fighting for our loved ones. We're told we're fighting for our country. That's a good thing right? I mean...patriotism is good isn't it? Generally, we may think so but that doesn't mean it's always right. Just because we stick a label on something and call it "patriotism" doesn't mean that's what it actually is. How do we determine what's right anyway? The concept of what's right and wrong are so skewed during times of war we often get lost in the explosion of what's moral and what's not. The United States isn't always right (as much as many redneck, gun-loving Texans may like to believe). Neither are these other countries that we're constantly fighting. We may never know who was right. We may never even know the whole story. All we do know is who won, who lost, and who's left. Since history is always written from the perspective of the winners, we only get a twisted, biased, glorified opinion on what really happened. How will we know who was genuinely right and who could justify their actions? Well...the losers are dead and they can't tell their side of the story and the winners just exaggerate and boast and blow everything out of proportion. In the end, everything is up in the air. We can't generalize one side of the war toward a stereotype and clump the others into another category. No one is truly right. Everyone has their own reason for why they choose to not only to take someone else's life but also to sacrifice their own in the process. No sane person makes the decision to take another human being's life like that with no justification.
War.
So who's right?
I guess we'll never know.
During a time of war, we often question the motives and reasons that led to this point. Fighting for freedom? Fighting to defend themselves? Fighting to defend the defenseless? But do we really know what we're fighting for? We're told we're fighting for our loved ones. We're told we're fighting for our country. That's a good thing right? I mean...patriotism is good isn't it? Generally, we may think so but that doesn't mean it's always right. Just because we stick a label on something and call it "patriotism" doesn't mean that's what it actually is. How do we determine what's right anyway? The concept of what's right and wrong are so skewed during times of war we often get lost in the explosion of what's moral and what's not. The United States isn't always right (as much as many redneck, gun-loving Texans may like to believe). Neither are these other countries that we're constantly fighting. We may never know who was right. We may never even know the whole story. All we do know is who won, who lost, and who's left. Since history is always written from the perspective of the winners, we only get a twisted, biased, glorified opinion on what really happened. How will we know who was genuinely right and who could justify their actions? Well...the losers are dead and they can't tell their side of the story and the winners just exaggerate and boast and blow everything out of proportion. In the end, everything is up in the air. We can't generalize one side of the war toward a stereotype and clump the others into another category. No one is truly right. Everyone has their own reason for why they choose to not only to take someone else's life but also to sacrifice their own in the process. No sane person makes the decision to take another human being's life like that with no justification.
War.
So who's right?
I guess we'll never know.
|| M.K. ||
No comments:
Post a Comment