Educationally speaking, the history of the world is portrayed from the perspective of war. I guess wars are the really big historical landmarks so we are taught history by way of leaders, their lives, countries, conquests, and defeats. For instance, a brief overview of history might list Alexander the Great, Rome, Napoleon, The French Revolution, the American Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, The Gulf War and finally, 9-11 and the war on Terror. It makes me wonder what history would have looked like if there had been no war. But since that is clearly not the case I think it might be more useful to wonder what history would be like in the future if we learned how to avoid war.
Wars can be very personal things, like feuds, for example. Neighbors fighting over land or goods, or whatever. Or, wars can be national things where a whole country has been wronged and an entire nation goes to war to defend themselves. Wars can also be wars of aggression where the leader of a nation conquers other nations to acquire more wealth, resources, power and people. Unfortunately, senseless wars are sometimes started by lies and propaganda where men and women give their lives thinking it is for a good cause, when their leaders have simply learned that war is good for business so they promote false wars out of greed.
Whatever the cause, it's still war. Both the innocent and the not-so-innocent will die. Though some of the causes are right and good, like defending your family from an enemy attack, other causes are not good, like fighting for a greedy dictator who merely desires more land, wealth or power. Historically, people have denounced those people who ignorantly or knowingly fought for a dictator who was seeking for power. To ordinary people, fighting for this kind of cause seems like the height of crime against humanity. No one wants to be accused of supporting such a man or such a cause.
On the other hand, those who fight valiantly for the cause of defending themselves, their family, country, land, home and goods from any attack whatever is rightly considered heroic. The difference between these two is of course, the cause for which they fight. Fighting itself is not typically thought of as a quality to be desired in an individual, but given the right cause, fighting becomes a virtue. While at the same time, fighting for an unpopular or dangerous cause would be thought of as criminal.
Our challenge today is to determine where we stand as a country, as a people, and as an individual. War is the product of fear. If we are afraid that someone will hurt us, we will try to defend ourselves. However, large groups of people are also subject to 'group fear'. A small rumor, fed to a large group can bring about great fear and ultimately, war. When Hitler was rising to power, he formed a propaganda campaign. He taught his people to fear certain people in their midst. That fear created the atmosphere in which the people allowed their freedoms to be curtailed in order to control the people they feared. The fear that was generated caused people to look the other way when their neighbors were taken away, family by family. Propaganda, fed to the people through the mass media, created a monster that had to be destroyed.
Those people were no different than you or I, yet historically, people have been condemned for following Hitler. It has caused me to reflect, time and again: “Are we defending ourselves?” I ask myself. “Against what?” “Is there propaganda today?” “If so, how can I recognize it?” “Who is the enemy?” “Who gave me the information I have?” and “Am I willing to die or be killed based on their word alone?” These and other questions have filled my mind at times. I would not wish for someone to believe that I am their enemy based on the word of someone who merely wants my property. Likewise, I would not wish to be responsible for believing that someone else is my enemy simply because someone told me so. So, how do we know for sure? Well, put yourself in Germany's place in 1935. How could they have known? What were their warnings? Where were the signs? If I cannot answer these questions, then I will probably make the same mistakes they made. History always repeats itself. Which page will you and I be repeating?
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