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November 02, 2004
Osama and Will
I watched the movie Osama yesterday about the girl in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime who had to dress as boy in order for her family not to starve. President Bush recommended that people watch this movie to see what life was like under the Taliban since it is based on a true story and from my conversations with people who have been in Afghanistan the past few years and from what I have read it seems accurate. It was very well acted and directed and, alhtough depressing, it is good to know that because of the U.S. military it is no longer the reality in Afghanistan at least.
Stories like this make me wonder about some people in the world. I was reading a letter to the editor in Salon this morning that said people should not worry too much who wins the election and that progressives need to not get so upset because:
If you're progressive liberal, aren't violence and war obsolete?
The writer was trying to make another point, but there are people out there who still honestly believe this. It is statements like this that make it so hard for me to understand where modern leftists are coming from. Their world is a world run by rules based on their will not rules based on how the world is. If they will that violence and war are obsolete, then that removes the necessity of us ever having to use war or violence. The only problem is that the world is not run by will as much as these modern day Schopenhauers will it to be so. Individuals are run by will, but by their will not anyone else's will. The problem with willing war and violence to be obsolete is that war and violence are always going to exist as long as there is life no matter what you will. The Taliban were never going to lay down their arms by willing them to because they have wills of their own and guns to back up their will. Neither was Saddam or Hamas or Fascist Germany or Imperial Japan or Imperial England in 1776 going to lay down their arms voluntarily. The only way to get them to lay down their arms was to either kill them or kill enough of their confederates to scare them into laying down their arms. Willing them to do so does not work. I think this sucks and will it to be otherwise, but war is and always will be the way of the world and I, and we as a society, must accept that reality.
Posted by Pete at November 2, 2004 08:48 AM
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