The absurdity of war and the new human landscape

-What do we think about the war? “I and my friends  think it‘s ridiculous, it is absurd. Why can‘t people just talk?”

This was the response I got from a 17-year-old friend of mine in Europe when I asked him about what he and his friends thought about this war that is now going on.

We have talked here before in Pressenza, before Covid, about a new human landscape that is appearing in the young generation. Some observable characteristics of this new landscape are  nonviolence,  decisions based on consensus, kindness and care for the others. This young man and his friendsare far from being “radical” or even “deep thinkers”.  Some would say that they are in many ways part of the System. They study to get their profession and want a decent job, family etc. But war does not enter their landscape.

Wars have always been absurd yet during the ages they were looked at it as a necessary  evil or even sometimes glorified.

Even today  it is a sign of courage to say “I will stand and fight even if I get killed”.

If the same people would say we are going to commit suicide in masse, others would be horrified, because that is not normal.

In the old landscape producing, distributing  and using weapons to kill other humans, is considered normal. “Yes, we would prefer to talk, less costly, but if that doesn´t work then we will use our arms”.

So here is this highly specialized engineer who designs the weapon that will kill others. That is considered normal, and that young engineer is just doing a job and later he goes home to his family not having second thoughts about what he was doing during the day.

In these wars there are certain rules for how to kill people and what not to do. So, those who don´t follow the instructions they are sometimes tried and even get sentenced.

But who is responsible for that killing? The soldier? Those that told him to go and kill others? The arms producers or those that gave or sold them to his country. Or is it the engineer who designed the weapon to begin with?

Of course, all in that chain  are responsible.  And so are people in the old landscape who think it is normal to have arms and kill people.

It is amazing that now nobody talks about this current war as medieval insanity. The media covers the war in detail but no one says this is like covering a story that occurs in an insanity war where people are disconnected from reality and act in different  plays that do not correspond to the time. Like, someone there really thinks he is Napoleon, and because he really believes that, he is locked up. The general, however,  is not seen as being crazy as he plans how to kill a lot of fellow humans.

It is accepted to have arms  and their only purpose is to kill.

The media does not think this is insane, instead they comment on what these arms are, what they can do, etc. And people think it is normal and necessaryto have an army although there are quite a few countries without armies and they function quite well.

During WWI, the war that was fought in the trenches and that strategy seemed like the right thing to do, although the fields were full of corpses. Those who stormed into the field they did so not because of a heroic action  rather they would be shot by their own if they did not. That was also considered normal.

Hopefully more and more people will see the absurdity of this whole thing, of killing other people massively. Like this young friend of mine.

There are quite a few countries where a good part of their export earning come by  producing and selling arms, countries that pretend to be the bearers of peace. But the arms industry provides work and a very hefty profit, so it is considered normal. In the old landscape.

One could go a little further and say why do you need arms and the answer is to defend ourselves.  So they don´t steel our possessions, kill others and me.  Of course, behind that fear of losing all these things is the fear of losing everything, or the fear of death. Hence, the arms will not disappear and become as something antique unless a good many of the human population lose that fear.

Until they realize that they are not just what they see in the mirror. Behind the image in the mirror, there is the human, the same in all of us. Comprehending that, experiencing the human, then it would not occur to  anyone to harm others. The new landscape in the young generations is moving in that direction.