The thing we lost

Europeans started to dominate the world due to three basic traits: greed, inventivity and remorselessness. We lost the latter.

War is hell and I guess it was always like that, but we embelished it with the idea of glory and honor. It was a team effort and we were all in; together for the same purpose. This is why society supported the idea of war and the sacrifices soldiers had to make. The stress and horror was still there but the way society viewed you was different. You were glorified not only for doing your duty but for your courage as well. We got good at fighting. A culture of warriors; we conquered the world.

But after the second world war things changed. The hippie movement marched under the flag of peace and the shamefulness of war. The western society was transformed.

In the U.S. the Vietnam generation started to be portrayed as ruthless, chaotic and damaged. The thin veil over the tragedies of conflict ballmed the subconscious with ideas of bravery. And when we removed it, the wounds of war never healed. Soldiers, forced to act like monsters, remained monsters.

This is not warmongering. This is not about bows and swords and guns and missiles. Those are just means to project our will. The will to bring civilization to the next level. I am tired of us being threatened with bombs by terrorists, with nuclear missiles by autocratic countries because we want freedom and we want it everywhere. As long as war is off the table, we might never gain the leverage to succeed.

Paraphrasing Derek Miller, there are people who wonder where their next meal will come from, people who fear that people will come in the night with machetes or machine guns to kill or injure their family, people who have to run for their lives, people who still live in concentration camps. Meanwhile we debate weather Osama’s execution was necessary or not.

We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep into our own history and our doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular.
— Edward Murrow