The War Conspiracy

We go to war to settle those differences that we think cannot be settled any other way so why all these damn rules and conventions? I thought this was supposed to be a fight! Anything goes, right? If I want your resources why do I have to follow these rules? I NEED what you have…oh, I mean WE need to settle our differences. It’s a matter of life or death. Me or you and I don’t care about you. I only care about me. But all these rules!? There is some funny business going on. War seems to be a necessary evil that we all commit and since at its core it shares many of the same relative distinctions we associate with crime we need these rules to euphemistically cover our bullshit. Sorry, but that’s what it sounds like…BULLSHIT!!! Imagine if theft was legal as long as thieves adhered to a set of rules. For example, no breaking windows to enter buildings and no stealing of items above a certain monetary value. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But war doesn’t? Oh yeah, that’s right. We go to war out of necessity. But then again, thieves don’t steal for kicks.

JUSTIFIED CRIME

The rules and regulations provide solace for what is nothing but a series of criminal acts. It’s like a game. A bloody, irrational game. It only seems necessary because we are far from ready to deal with what it takes to achieve the alternative. The following italicized bit is for those of you who clicked the hyperlink:

I am not saying accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior is the way to peace, I am saying that accepting the ‘spirit’ of Jesus as your Lord and Savior is a way to peace. Not the literal Christ, but the fundamentals of the story—sacrifice in the face of aggression. You are attacked and instead of hitting back you turn the other cheek. This is the one tough fight because it is a personal battle. Pride is on the line. Self preservation is on the line, but you remain steadfast. You have faith in your principles. It’s the Golden Rule bit. Even though you are being attacked you must not ‘sell your soul’ and return the blow. Yes, it’s absurd, but you’re not doing this for you, you’re doing it for them, for their ‘sins.’

Of course sin is relative and in this case the sin is one of hypocrisy. The Golden Rule is not a statement, but a question, in order to know how to treat our fellow man we must first ask ourselves how we would like to be treated. When your attacker asked this question of himself he probably didn’t come to the conclusion that he wanted to be beaten, so when you turn that other cheek you force him to commit a sin against himself, not you. Even if he considers you “less than,” if you view him as your brother he still is committing a sin against himself because you refuse to see yourself as less than. By committing this sacrificial act you project this confidence. You hope that he will learn from his mistake and not repeat it…

But when it comes to war all we do is repeat and repeat and repeat. As I say over and over again on this blog…the only thing the winner of a war wins is the opportunity to fight again and they always seize that opportunity. But hey, they hit us! We gotta hit them! We just gotta! But the story of Jesus and the many others like Him implore us to take a different tact. It is the spirit of these stories that inspire these ones. Perhaps to be Christ-like is to sacrifice instead of judge or rebuke and this starts with looking inward and asking tough questions of ourselves instead of making demands of others.

The linked clip is kind of like torture porn, but this is what we respond to. This is what we pay attention to. The sensational. My breakdown is far from sensational, it’s sterile, almost academic and quite boring to be frank. Where others see the literal word of God, I see existentialism. Beautiful, deep, rich, sometimes scary, sometimes sublime existentialism. Thank ‘God‘ for the sensational surface layer.

Okay, now for those didn’t bother to click the link, the 99.9% of you. I know I whine about that a lot, but the article is the sensational surface, the links are the corroborative bits below the surface.

Perhaps we are closer to getting over our war angst than we think. Just look, we have all of these war surrogates—violent videogames, movies, football, boxing, MMA—isn’t that enough? We get to relinquish our aggression and it’s all in the name of fun. Good, conspiratorial fun. Both teams show up on the playing field and agree to play by the rules although their goal is to slaughter each other. Yes, it’s sublimely ironic, but it works for us. Don’t worry, the more digital we go, the “cleaner” our invasions will become. Death is rather messy and costly. The more precise this game gets the less lives are lost. One day it may become so precise that we won’t even notice when the invasion happens. We’ll just feel the effects.