Violence
Submitted by Altima on 2002-11-8 13:08:03, Friday
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Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. (Matt. 5:9) Today the UN Security Council passed that tough resolution on Iraq. Why are we all of a sudden overcome with bloodlust? I feel Iraq would be a better place without Saddam, but why choose now? I know this is not a political website, but this got me thinking. When I first arrived in this forum, I confessed in my first post that I was afraid of myself, because I was getting very angry in general. A few times my contempt for those I hated nearly manifested as violence, and I was afraid that I would really hurst someone, that if I started to attack someone I wouldn't stop until I'd finished the job. I was very scared. The fact is that never happened, I kept my self control and those feelings have passed. I've mentioned this a lot these days because I'm still sort of fascinated about why at that particular point in my life I felt that way. I was always a peace-loving kid. When I was six, I got punched in the face by some bully. My mother suggested I just punched him back, and I told her that I'd become as bad as he was. "After all," I said, "I'm a pacifist." But these days my pacifism has gone by the wayside when I started learning about evil. For a while I read everything I could about the Holocaust, then about Nazi military campaigns. Next were more modern tales of cruelty. I was always stunned by the fact that even though Vietnam was never black-and-white in its morality, people neither then nor today treat it as such. (I recently made a casual mention of the fact that I heard from a veteran who happily returned from the anguish of the Vietnam war, only to be spat upon and insulted when he got home. My friends said they were glad he got spat on. I mentioned that although there were a few cases of atrocities committed by Americans during Vietnam, and almost all involved were punished, there were far more committed by the Viet Cong that were never publicised because of their frequency, and that this particular individual had lost all of his friends because the VC had strapped a bomb on a child and sent him into the bar where his friends were having some R&R. They didn't respond. People here, as liberal as they pretend to be, can be heartless bastards...) I'm curious as to whether or not we're doomed to this sort of situation, where there will always be enough hatred to make the world a horrible violent place. The Israel situation was solvable, and they were close before the Israelis gave up on the Mitchell plan. Gah, this is becoming frustrating to write. It's turning into another "I hate politicians" thing, but it's true. No one is leading us. "The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. Ezekiel 34 What i'm trying to say is, these things are giving me trouble. Trouble with having faith in humanity, trouble with having faith in anything. I feel like more and more these days cynicism is becoming justified, and as much as I want to improve it, I feel helpless to do so without the possability that people can make it work. Sorry if I'm ranting. I'm just getting back in the habit of posting. It's tough to think of topics these days :) |
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