- Omid-X to Agamem-X (his father) -
My most venerable and loving lifegiver, whose attentioned words during my childhood nurtured my wisdom and empathy, it is very difficult these days to witness the carnage this planet is going through. The killings, the injustices, the destructions these humans bring onto themselves have become unbearable for me. Yet, in the middle of this tragedy, I realize that witnessing it is as though I had lived through our own planet’s Great Implosion and seen the atrocities that preceded it first hand.
On this day that the Americans celebrate their independence, I am thinking of those soldiers who have died and are dying while fighting for their countries. I have noticed on many planets that their respective civilizations value very highly these self sacrifices and deaths. Ever since I read the stories of hoards of men and women, voluntarily going to war and to almost certain death, I have been wondering what is it that brings that in them?
What makes people want to volunteer to go to war, especially if they know they have a 50+% chance of non-return? I understand the concept of pride, the notion of fighting for the father or mother land, fighting for freedom. I also get that deep within all creatures with a consciousness, there is the notion of hope of survival, and dodging the bullet (not intended as a pun). I also get the idea that for many people, especially in poorer countries, going to war is a means－maybe their only means－of providing a subsistance life to their family. But I often felt these concepts could not fully explain it all.
Then it dawned on me that in many great wars and battles that resulted in horrendous numbers of deaths, most of the dead were common men, those who seemed insignificant to the eyes of the society prior to the war. Yet these same people were somebody’s children, spouses, siblings, and in that, they had a significant entourage.
Without a war, these commoners would live a life enriched with fleeting pleasures and passing pains; with memorable moments, and events better suited for being forgotten. But... in the end, they leave this world in more or less anonymity, and within a generation or maximum two they will be forgotten. No one will know who they were, where they came from, and what they did. Yes there may be a registry of a birth certificate, a tomb stone somewhere, even a picture or two on a wall, but by far no one, past a grand child will generally recall them or talk about them.
A war dead, however, has a special place in societies. They will be mentioned with pride, their names will be respected:by their families and descendants, their native village, and other people and locations. Often times families may have forgotten many of their ancestors, but often remember the ones who have fallen in such and such a war.
Consequently, even though the common man/woman who goes to war－a war of probable no-return－ may seem insignificant in the big picture, he/she belongs to a family, a clan of some sort. Thus if he/she survives, he/she gets to tell stories to his/her descendants. Stories that will get passed down a few generations. And if he/she does not make it, he/she will still be remembered for a few generations as the grand/great grand father/mother, (great) uncle/aunt who died heroically in such and such a war, and made entire families of descendants live with honor.
From Boston, Massachusetts - 14 July, 2023 (Earth)