A few days ago, as the bell rang to begin my AP US History class, my friend turned to me from a couple of rows in front. They asked me, “Why are we doing work when we could be bombed at any moment?” I had brushed it off, not fully wanting to face that truth, and had joked that the last place I wanted to die was in history class. I sat through the rest of class waiting for the whistle of a bomb from above, and a thunderous fiery doom.
Humans have a propensity to say that this is simply the way things have always been. We have always lusted for glory and conquest; we have long shackled others to gain power. We are by no means a holy, prestigious race. We point to a patch of rock we want, we fight, and we formulate massive weapons, planning giddily who can kill more of the others. We come back from wars, waving our flag and cheering for victory, whilst cities across the world lie in ruin and thousands are left without a grave.
Maybe I don’t know much because I still have hope for a peaceful future, but war, in the simplest terms possible, is idiotic. No person should be put in power by a nation if they truly believe violence has or ever will be the answer; that is abhorrently moronic. It is a shameful and disgusting act from any side, and to this day, we refuse to acknowledge that this is not the way things should be. Fights for justice are often opposed by a similar argument, this is the way things have always been.
Oddly, the one human tradition we yearn to keep is that of violence and destruction.
We cannot say ‘this is the way it has always been’ to the millions of Palestinians who have lost their lives due to genocide. We cannot say ‘it is our divine right’ to the Native Americans we massacred to gain more land. You cannot justify horrific acts such as the Holocaust with a diminishing phrase such as ‘it was in the past’.
Our world lacks a prominent anti-war sentiment that I believe to be crucial to a continuous survival. When is it? When will it ever be enough? Once the world is desecrated, and the stars and stripes are plastered over the countries we see as lesser for their races and religions, will it be enough? When our world is torn apart by the same logic of ‘it is our way of life’, will such elementary words suffice?
I never answered my friend’s question that day in class, I couldn’t find the right words. Even now, I cannot put into writing my disgust for our current government and its violent actions. Our world will be destroyed by ego and vanity if we, as a society, choose to sit back and continue with our lives, always staying alert to hear the faint whispers of our imminent doom.
