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| War graves in Italy |
A few years ago I was travelling through Italy when I came across these war graves. I notice that they are lined up in militaristic lines, like soldiers on parade, and that there are shadows of tree branches sketching ragged lines and straight lines amongst them on the lawns, almost like the boundaries of an old atlas.
The soldiers are dead. The trees are alive. Yet the sun will move and the lines will change and vanish when the night falls or when the clouds grow dense and obscure the sunlight. Eventually the trees will die and I suppose they will be replaced by other trees. The dead soldiers have already been replaced with living soldiers, some of whom will die or are already dead having been killed in some war or other and installed in graves like these at some other location.
Interesting that these soldier graves are often made of white stone, whilst the graves of normal civilians are mostly dark grey or black. It is as if to die in battle is a kind of purification of the soul. But how can that be? Soldiers are by their profession trained killers. But is it not a sin to kill? Perhaps it is not? Perhaps we have been misinformed? Perhaps the most honourable profession is that of a soldier?
What more honourable thing can a man do than protect his people by killing their enemies and lay down his own life for his brother? Maybe all sides in a conflict think like this, or along similar lines. That would explain why there is so much never-ending bloodshed in the world and why it has always been so since the dawn of civilization. So what's the answer, assuming the ultimate goal is to love one's neighbour as one's self?
Perhaps the answer is not to start wars in the first place. If we say that is the way forward we must find the reason for armed conflicts. And there is one reason that is to be found at the beginning of every armed conflict. It is a lack of understanding, often on one side but sometimes on both sides, of the other side's point of view. This is why the United Nations was created we are told. A talking shop where problems could be discussed and their solutions found.
No problem is without a non-military solution. But there are those who refuse to enter discussion, who will walk out when the discussion begins, if they feel that the verdict will go against them. And that's what we have to stop. They must be obliged to sit and take part in the proceedings, or if not some third party must be appointed to sit there and act as proxy. Only that way can we reduce tension and injustice in the world, only that way can we reduce the constant bloodletting and barbarity going on in the world, and only that way can we come together and to protect our species from destruction, and progress with dignity and honour to the next level of evolution for the planet and humankind.
The soldiers are dead. The trees are alive. Yet the sun will move and the lines will change and vanish when the night falls or when the clouds grow dense and obscure the sunlight. Eventually the trees will die and I suppose they will be replaced by other trees. The dead soldiers have already been replaced with living soldiers, some of whom will die or are already dead having been killed in some war or other and installed in graves like these at some other location.
Interesting that these soldier graves are often made of white stone, whilst the graves of normal civilians are mostly dark grey or black. It is as if to die in battle is a kind of purification of the soul. But how can that be? Soldiers are by their profession trained killers. But is it not a sin to kill? Perhaps it is not? Perhaps we have been misinformed? Perhaps the most honourable profession is that of a soldier?
What more honourable thing can a man do than protect his people by killing their enemies and lay down his own life for his brother? Maybe all sides in a conflict think like this, or along similar lines. That would explain why there is so much never-ending bloodshed in the world and why it has always been so since the dawn of civilization. So what's the answer, assuming the ultimate goal is to love one's neighbour as one's self?
Perhaps the answer is not to start wars in the first place. If we say that is the way forward we must find the reason for armed conflicts. And there is one reason that is to be found at the beginning of every armed conflict. It is a lack of understanding, often on one side but sometimes on both sides, of the other side's point of view. This is why the United Nations was created we are told. A talking shop where problems could be discussed and their solutions found.
No problem is without a non-military solution. But there are those who refuse to enter discussion, who will walk out when the discussion begins, if they feel that the verdict will go against them. And that's what we have to stop. They must be obliged to sit and take part in the proceedings, or if not some third party must be appointed to sit there and act as proxy. Only that way can we reduce tension and injustice in the world, only that way can we reduce the constant bloodletting and barbarity going on in the world, and only that way can we come together and to protect our species from destruction, and progress with dignity and honour to the next level of evolution for the planet and humankind.
There is no other way.
The End
Was it Winstone Churchill who said, "Jaw, jaw is better than war, war." The trouble is Gwil that each and every one of us is so wretchedly territorial - we protect our patch and our way of life and if it is threatened we attack. My cleaner bought two new goldfish and put them in her tank with another two who were already there. There was immediate war and she had to remove the two new ones to another tank, otherwise they would have been dead. If goldfish are like it, what hope for us, except that we talk. Hence the U N. But it somehow doesn't seem to work.
ReplyDeleteThe goldfish fought because they were in a small glass container. If the goldfish had been in their natural environment that is to say in a pond, for a goldfish is only a genetically manipulated carp, they would probably not have fought. But I agree that animals do fight amongst themselves, and often to the death, like blackbirds for example. Humans on the other hand have opportunity to elevate themselves, and put primitive behaviour like war behind them. They should do this post haste. If they don't they will destroy themselves, and make the planet uninhabitable for all creatures, goldfish included. Einstein said: I don't know how the 3rd World War will be fought, but the 4th World War will be fought with sticks and stones.
ReplyDeleteI have just a programme about the Hittites in Turkey in the Bronze Age. They went to war everywhere from Turkey, to Syria to Egypt, and wiped entire nations out it is believed and then they had a civil war and wiped themselves out led by greed. It seems to me that war is and was and will always be.
ReplyDeleteLast night I saw the new film We Come as Friends. It is about the exploitation of Sudan by China, USA, GB, EU, USSR, Arabs, etc. over the last 150 years or so and the dividing of Africa into nations, and the creation of the worlds newest nation SouthSudan. Religion and economics appear to the drivers. Sadly there is unlimited money for weapons but not for the people living in filth squalor of industry especially oil in this paradise.
ReplyDelete