readings: War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
May 18, 2003

This book is not a call for inaction. It is a call for repentance. �Chris Hedges

When the tragic series of events took place since September 2001, I became concerned, worried, intrigued and I started to bury myself in readings that may or may not reveal to me the mysteries of humanity, peace and war. Not that war is anything new to mankind, in fact, war is something of the norm throughout history. As many people, I have not paid much mind to war until suffering hits home. I am just trying to make sense of this love affair our species have with war. I am trying to be intellectually awake. �War is a force that gives us meaning,� argues Chris Hedges in his book. The author is a foreign correspondent for the "New York Times":http://www.nytimes.com who spent a good portion of his professional career covering the unrest of the world including those in the Balkans, the Middle East and Central America. He shares with us an honest portrayal of the experiences he garnered first-hand in the field. Hedges examines the meaning that war brings to those directly and indirectly involved in it, and this meaning cannot be necessarily heroic and noble. For the most part, the meaning materializes in front of us in the shape of addiction, suffering and destruction. Using stories from the past of villages and tribes, empires and nations, Hedges reveals to us the elements of war. First, there is the obvious�war kills, tears, hurts, maims, and perverts. War creates a mythology of noblemen and heroes, it is deceitful in its causes. War distorts our perception of history, clouds our interpretation of the present, and muddles our goals for the future. War razes heritage, and erases civilization selectively. War challenges our principles and ethics, it can corrupt our collective morals. War deceives us in our politics, destroys us in our humanity. War makes us turn a blind eye and turns us all into self-glorifying tribes. War turns us into wide-eyed spectators, hungry for continuous feed of images to satisfy our perverted curiosity. War mutes us. Susan Sontag argues in her book "Regarding the Pain of Others":http://think.patchesandmarble.com/archives/books/nonfiction_misc/2003/05/000017.html that contrary to conventional expectations, history has shown that war has been the continuing norm, and peace is an aberration. Hedges once said, � "the most powerful narcotic invented by humankind is war":http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_hedges.html � and judging from the stories he tells in his book, from box-office hits, from popular television shows, this drug is holding us tight in its addictive grip. The author reminds us how important it is for us to understand that unless we are prepared to renounce violence all together in all corners of life, we will continue to resort to war as a necessary fever, or a poisonous drug to cure what might ail us. But before we swallow the bitter pills in high doses, we must read the warning labels, and be completely aware of the deep and permanent repercussions of war, and be responsible and accountable for every measures that we take.

All the world�s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts... �Jaques, As You Like It by Shakespeare

As people who live in nations privileged enough to be removed from the front lines of turmoil, we tend to look at war as a strategy of a big picture, absent in all its gore and but saturated in its glory. Whether we are the supporters, opponents, planners, participants, recipients, survivors or spectators of war, we must not begin to forget the meaning of war�the positive and the negative�even when it is over. "War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1586480499/ by Chris Hedges Published September 2002 ISBN: 1586480499

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