“The awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man.”
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Dozens of Russian airstrikes in Ukraine.
Israeli airstrikes in Damascus.
37 Saudi airstrikes in Yemen.
US airstrikes in Somalia.
All this in the last few days.
Why is humanity’s natural default to slip into chaos, warfare and destruction?
“I bathe in the fountains of retribution,
I fought for your empire…
My castle in ashes,
Bullet through my skull,
Is there nothing left to say?
My reflection fades with the tears of the dying sun,
Broken on your fields of fire,
Nestled in society’s little grave.”
– Thicker Than Blood, from the Hollow Dreams (2003) album by Stigmata
The fallacy of unity during the pandemic
Remember when the first few waves of Covid-19 disseminated and shook the world by its gonads? I am sure we can all recall how every nation feigned ushering in a new found sentiment of graceful unity and camaraderie?
Countries worked in fellowship initially to support one another.
The pandemic devastated the world, sure. But it also beckoned a briefly lived hiatus to wars, mass environmental pollution, mayhem, violent crime, political disputes, corporate power struggles and overall bedlam induced travesty.
Remember for a while how instead of humanity warmongering and spiralling back to our most primordial base, savage selves actually opted to have a modicum of fellowship to deal with the global threat?
Well, that lasted all of a cosmic blink of an eye, right?
The current state of the world
Let us consider that for a period of time we were all more worried about economic recession, crippled commerce, social disruption and disarray, the impact of Covid-19 on livelihoods, occupations, peoples’ health, professional and personal lives was the focal point of catastrophe that humanity opted to overcome.
It is estimated that nearly half of the world’s 3.3 billion global workforce had much bigger issues to deal with; from losing or retaining their jobs, facing numerous imposed lockdowns, a lack of social protection and available health care, and shattered incomes.
The entire food system was laid bare. Border closures, confinement measures and trade restrictions were abundant. Farmers faced hardship in harvesting crops, their inputs and product selling affected, and entire supply chains in turmoil.
Working poverty grew significantly.
Marginalised segments and populations were left in total economic paralysis.
Livelihoods were and still are decimated as new variants keep emerging akin to a bakery churning out bread.
One would imagine that while the world, and many nations – including those developed nations – are still rocking upon the tip of a precipice in fighting to regain a semblance of economic, social, corporate and personal recovery would go back to old habits.
Back to old tricks
“War, huh, yeah!
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!
Uh-huh!”
– Edwin Starr (1970)
The world has gone postal, completely and irritably bat dung insane it seems.
It didn’t take long for nations to plot, scheme and strategise new methods to sneak back into their old ways. Of course, one must look at why this happened.
On one hand it is our nature to lean towards entropy and chaos. Haven’t we always been that way? Humanity; starting off as basic hunter/gatherers and then in our evolution finding it in our best interest to overthrow and disrupt others for personal, political or religious gain.
Population growth, overexploitation, overconsumption, pollution and deforestation all contribute to our bountifully orchestrated disposition to grow desensitised towards others.
It is embedded in us to possess large reserves of innate human defiance, an inability to truly understand harmony (be it with nature and the environment we live in or ourselves), being incapable of rationalising unhealthy and destructive patterns, to be power slaves; starved for influence, wealth, recognition and status.
Of course, the stronger and more powerful you are; from an economic, military, technological and trade standpoint – the more you gain political leverage.
But how in seven glorious hells have we managed to etch the narrative to concoct a recipe for World War III? While the earth is still combating Covid-19 and the repercussions that it brought with it, and the pandemic seems to be the uninvited guest with unending gifts that never keep coming.
Whose war is it anyway?
“Horror has a face, and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared.”
– Kurtz, Apocalypse Now
The tensions escalating as a result of the ramped up armed conflict between the Western world vs Russia and China is what’s on everyone’s minds at the moment. The EU, the US and the UK unveiled heavy economic sanctions against Russia. While Russia and China still seem to believe that using force and fear is necessary to settle international disputes.
We keep seeing a series of proxy wars that are bound to elevate into full-scale, unhinged armed conflict and warfare in the time ahead.
Putin appears to want to rebuild the U.S.S.R. and the Soviet Union, bringing it back to its former glory.
Wars strengthen the economic position of the dominating force; there are advantages and contributing factors to job provision, weapons manufacture, technological investment and cash flow. Anyone who hasn’t lived under a rock and has even an iota of common sense would know this.
War also helps to strengthen one’s political standing, adding benefits to trade, the ability to procure new resources in subjugated states and regions.
However, consider that Russia has the fourth largest army in the world, and one would think “Oh, that’s not so bad then, right? RIIIIGHHHHT???” Russia has 900,000 troops, a million active-duty personnel, 13,000 tanks, 27,000 armoured vehicles, 4465 artillery guns, and 6257 nuclear weapons.
They’ve had ample time to plan their course of action, biding their time and what better moment in history than now? When even the most developed and most powerful nations are economically handicapped and socially decapitated by the pandemic?
Humanity’s end
Yet, if we consider in deep contemplation there is much more to this than meets the eye here.
Yes, much of the world has been quick to start painting the heroes and the villains, the good and bad, the right and wrong.
Yes, let us not have any qualms or any shadow of doubt over it. War is despicable, dreadful and outdated. Get on with the programme and rock the earth with cyber warfare and economic disruption via trade sanctions, embrace machine learning, industry 4.0 and play the relevant game in the given context with technological advancements, crypto, disruptive tech and robotics.
Western media is on a rampant rampage to chastise and bastardise Russia and China.
There is absolutely NO excuse for genocide, war torn conflict and the demise of innocent people, natural resources and assets of a nation over fear mongering and political leverage.
No one has the right or ought to play God with the lives of other people. Those in power throughout history have often gambled with the lives of others, putting innocent lives on the line in the name of harnessing more power, political status, economic influence and global pull.
HOLD ON!
Wait just a second here.
But…
But…
BUT….
Isn’t this throughout history what colonising countries have done? Invading and reigning over the less powerful that showcase proverbial potential; copious natural resources, geographical trade and military advantage, throw in a nice little phrase or two about culture, civilisation, quote a god, a government and fire those guns blazing to tame a land in the name of prosperity.
Isn’t this exactly what the Western nations have pulled off for centuries even, under the guise of diplomatic pursuit, global renaissance and social interest?
From the ancient empires of Greece, Rome, Egypt, Persia, Babylon, Macedonia, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings etc., to Britain and the US in more recent decades – this isn’t something new.
The world has faced everything from the Crusades, The Hundred Years’ War, two world wars and countless proxy and civil wars.
Just that with the times the techniques and technologies along with the methodologies have evolved.
Let’s not forget Afghanistan and the US pulling out their troops after securing trillions of USD worth of natural resources before doing so.
The distinctive difference is in how the narrative is played. When the common, conscientious and widely accepted narrative becomes that which is etched by the powers that be, that becomes the norm.
It’s like history, no? It’s nearly always the victors and those who rule that write the history books.
In the words of one fine chap called Sri on Twitter: “It’s a humanitarian mission when the West does it. But a human rights crisis when others do it.”
It’s time that the human race learns from the errors of our past, that we align with these progressive times whilst dealing with immense and incomprehensible challenges in a pandemic world.
Let’s not condemn one war that is sensationalised and propagandised. Let’s condemn all wars.
Or it will surely be humanity’s end.
“Silently to silence fall
In the fields of futile war
Toys of death are spitting lead
Where boys that were our soldiers bled
War horse and war machine
Curse the name of liberty
Marching on as if they should
Mix in the dirt our brothers’ blood
In the mud and rain
What are we fighting for?
Is it worth the pain?
Is it worth dying for?
Who will take the blame?
Why did they make a war?
Questions that come again
Should we be fighting at all?”
– The Aftermath, from The X Factor (1995) album by Iron Maiden
(The writer is the frontman and lyricist of Stigmata, a creative consultant and brand strategist by profession, a self-published author and poet, thespian, animal rescuer, podcaster, and fitness enthusiast)
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The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
