"War Is Stupid And People Are Stupid"

[poliphilo]

Was there ever a war that wasn't popular- at least in its early stages?

The people of Israel are backing their government and the people of Lebanon are backing Hezbollah. 

When war breaks out, judgement, principle, commonsense dissolve into patriotic fervour. 

We all hate war, don't we? And yet...and yet...and yet....

Comments

[baritonejeff.livejournal.com]

I believe there is a component in most of us that bears a primal response to larger-than-everyday-life notions. War certainly falls into that category. It carries with it that seemingly irresistible power to make the mundane seem unimportant.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Here in Britain we still live in the faint afterglow of WWII. Whenever we want to feel good about ouselves we dig into the toybox of the national psyche and fish out Winston Churchill

[baritonejeff.livejournal.com]

The morons in my (reluctantly) adopted state of Ohio dug into their noses and fished out George Bush.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

And in this country, if you express your misgivings about What's Going on in Iraq, you get investigated. YOu're unpatriotic.

My generation's soldiers were the ones who were called babykillers and not welcomed back when they returned from Viet Nam. My generation are the ones whose brothers and boyfriends and boys they went to school with, didn't come back.

I don't support war.

I wouldn't support ANY war.

ANYWHERE.

Sorry, Tony. I'll step down off my soapbox.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm almost a pacifist- but I think I would probably take up arms to defend my homeland.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Last night the national news report discussed a recent upsurge in violent crimes in the U.S.

I can't help but wonder if there's a connection--the old Zeitgeist--

I'm not feeling violent, on the surface at least, but it's surely in the noosphere...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's interesting.

All that rage has to find an outlet somewhere.

Hey, it's been a long time since anyone used the word "noosphere" in my presence. Tielhard de Chardin, right?

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Teilhard, yes!

Boy, did I get into his ideas a few years ago.

I've thrown out everything, mostly, because the scales have fallen from my eyes: none of us know anything.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I liked him too.

He had such a gentle, wise old face.

And I liked it that he was also a palaeontolgist.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I mean: none of us knows anything.

Fer sure.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm going off vox pop interviews with ordinary Lebanese that I've seen on the BBC- and other British news services.

What we're being told is that most Lebanese were opposed to Hezbollah until the War kicked off. Now Hezbollah enjoy popular support. Maybe this isn't true, but I find it psychologically plausible. If someone attacks your homeland you rally behind those who are defending it even if (in peacetime) they were your political enemies.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

Might I recommend you yamansalahi's lj - he is a Syrian in the USa and offers the clearest analyses I have yet found of the situation

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I shall go pay him a visit.