WARNING: This post contains some pretty controversial views that I hold about war. Please be aware this was/is/and will never be intended to offend anyone.
I have what some would call a controversial view of war. I prefer to think of it as progressive, but I can’t fault anyone for viewing it as a point of contention. In all honesty, they’re right.
I don’t believe in war. I don’t support it in the slightest. To me war is just a group of people in power forcing those who are not to kill and maim one another. Another bourgeoisie/proletariat debate that will never be solved.
For that reason, I have a huge problem discussing the Borden book in class. More so now than earlier simply because we’ve read further in the text, but a problem nonetheless. I get so heated about everything and I’m not sure I could accurately explain myself without devolving into a full blown set of sobs.
A major theme we’ve seen in most, if not all, of the texts we’ve read this semester is that of pointlessness/worthlessness. In the section of Borden we read for class today, a man tried to commit suicide and the narrator had to deal with the ethics of letting him die vs. letting him live. If he lived, he would most likely be shot and killed for basically trying to desert the war through death. If he died, he would escape the war.
We also read about the ethics of being a nurse in WWI where the job description implies bandaging the sheep and leading them to slaughter.
In real life, all the fighting and the death leading up to armistice was pointless. Both sides knew the war would end Nov. 11th, 1911, at 11 a.m. So why did they keep fighting? When the nurses bandage up the soldiers, they know they will be sent back into battle. So why keep bandaging? People talked about the war as the “peace to end all peace.” So why keep sending people into battle? In All Quiet we heard the men joking about just sending all the people in power to battle and sparing those who typically do their bidding. So why continue going?
How do we read all of the war books, listen to all these accounts, learn all this information, and continue sending ourselves into war? Continue sending our own selves to die? What’s the point of it all?
In class Dr. Scanlon said,
“The whole Earth is going to slide off of itself”
Isn’t that what Borden is saying? That by continuing the war we’re allowing humanity to self-destruct? Isn’t that what we’re doing today?
This really makes me wonder (and you all should too) who really is the bad guy? Who is the good guy?
War just seems so beyond hypocritical to me. It’s sickening.
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Sorry this was more of a rant than anything else. I just felt like if I didn’t say anything, I’d explode. Obviously, if I were to say this out loud, I’d be extending the inevitable and explode then too. It’s a no-win situation…a lot like war.
