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You just have to see as many battle scenes in order to have the insight that Chris Hedges has. As a reporter, he went from El Salvador to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Columbia, West bank and Gaza, Sudan and Yemen, Turkey and Iraq, Bosnia and Kosova. He’s see too many of brutality, death, honor and shame, win and loss, liess, and more lies. 

“The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its destruction and carnage it can give us what we long for in life. It can give us purpose, meaning, a reason for living. Only when we are in the midst of conflict does the shalowness and vapidness of much of our lives become apparent. Trivia dominates our conversations and increasingly our airwaves. And war is an enticing elixir. It gives us resolve, a cause. It allows us to be noble. And those who have the least meaning in their lives, the impoverished refugees in Gaza, the disenfranchised North African immigrants in France, even the legions of young who live in splendid indolence and safety of the industrialized world, are all susceptible to war’s appeal. 

…

many of us, restless, and unfulfilled, see no supreme worth in our lives. We want more out of life. And war, at least, gives a sense that we can rise above our smallness and divisiveness. 

…

War makes the world understandable, a black and white tableau of them and us. It suspends thought, especially self-critical thought. All bow before the supreme effort. We are one. Most of us willingly accept war as long as we can fold it into a belief system that paints the  ensuing suffering as necessary for a higher good, for human beings seek not only happiness but also meaning. And tragically war is sometimes the most powerful way in human society to achieve meaning. “

If Chris Hedges is correct, the process also apply to those who do the humanitarian work. May be we think that we are too small, and so does our world. The greatness can be achieved through reaching a big goal, a impossible goal, such as that of eliminating violence and pain. how funny it is that two opposite actions can be rooted  in the same source: that of searching for meaning.

Voices shall be heard?!!

I’m probably too old-fashioned to go back to the book of Exodus, since we are living in a democratic society, where everyone’s voice shall be heard.

But in the time of exodus, there is not much room for discussion. God spoke, Moses led, and the Hebrews followed. They thus crossed the red sea, conquered their enemies. But problems came as discussion began. How come we have so little food? How can we do this, how can we do that, this is not possible. They forgot that their God is the creator who turned nothing into the universe. They wanted to be heard, their complains went up to the Lord, and thus they wandered in the desert for 40 years till the generation died. If then Moses was trying to be political and let all voices to be heard, all issues to be discussed, more generations had probably passed out in the desert.