Thanks to war, I can be a pacifist

This summer I gained an increased sense of reverence and respect for the First World War. I listened to Dan Carlin's 6-part program on the war entitled, "A Blueprint for Armageddon". I realized that my knowledge of the two world wars had a real American bias that came from movies and literature. There are not many blockbuster movies about The Great War, primarily because the U.S. did not play as significant a role in it and no major production company is going to bank on a movie that extols the heroism of the Canadians in Vimy Ridge or the Australians in Gallipoli. In any event, I learned that I had a lot to learn about World War I and I also learned that it was horrible.

This Remembrance Day I have reflected on the accounts of trench warfare, gas attacks, and years of painful and miserable stalemates and my first reaction was, "couldn't they have done something else? Was this just prideful, evil men who were willing to let their people suffer and die just to protect their own egos? What of diplomacy?"

I am a pacifist. I can't think of many scenarios in which I would be willing to go to war. I don't like conflict and I spend my day brokering school yard contention with the hopes that the future generations will learn the skills of negotiation, compromise, and moderation. But I need to be honest with myself about one clear and important fact.

I can be a pacifist because millions of others before me, and even now, are fighting and dying so that I can continue to be so. And although I oppose every war that has taken place in my life time and I will argue for peace for the rest of my life, I have to acknowledge my deep gratitude for those who believed enough in the causes of their country state to risk their lives and fight other human beings to the death (which to me is in someway an even greater sacrifice. To kill in the name of your belief is a heavy burden that I'm not sure I could bear).

I wouldn't do it. I don't want anyone else to do it. But it was done and I can't change that. And I'm grateful that I have the freedom to express my opinions and the worst possible consequence to that is someone blocking me.

Peace is not just the absence of war. It's the absence of the perceivable possibility of war. There are some scary situations going on in this world but we are safer than we have ever been. It is highly unlikely that armed forces will enter Canada in the next year. And since we don't even have that in the psychological realm of possibilities we are now free to worry about whether our children are getting too much screen time and not enough fresh vegetables.

Part of me wants to rebel against the organization of states. The worst wars we have seen were launched and fought by country-states that are completely made up. Governments that pretend to have some kind of divine calling to lead people to the battle field and defend humanity. It angers me that the majority of people killed in wars are people who have been convinced to believe in organizations that are completely man-made and who were lead to slaughter while those in power played chess and sipped wine. It just feels so unnecessary.

On the other hand. That peace and safety that we enjoy and take for granted, exists primarily because we have such strong country-states with law and order that keep the majority of citizens safe. Before states, we settled disputes with blood. We have a justice system that is flawed for sure, but compared to essentially every other civilization in time, it stops  violence from happening more than it causes. We kill each other now less than ever and I can't deny the influence that organized states have on peacekeeping between human beings.

Fear of war has also kept us safe. Gone are the days that warring with a neighbour nation meant sending a few hundred or even thousand troops to shoot at each other for a few days until one side forfeits. We have developed technologies and weapons whose capabilities of destruction are so immense that a war against any of the powerful military states would not only mean certain doom for the country but potentially the entire world. Nuclear weapons have created a global detente to the effect of scaring anyone from actually using them. War used to be profitable for a nation because you would gain the spoils of the vanquished. War is no longer profitable in most cases and the loss of life and heaven forbid, capital, is too much for most modern nations to even consider it. 

Order is far more valuable than we give it credit. People suffer and die to maintain it. Billions are spent to gain and maintain it. It is also far more fragile than we understand. It's what sociologists call a "shared myth". Order only works when the majority of the people in a society believe it and cooperate to achieve it.

So this Remembrance Day I am grateful for those who are and were willing to do what I am not. And that is fight. Here's hoping that war will be a human phenomenon for us to remember and not to relive.