About Certain Suffering
Post 1993:
George Orwell explained how the Party used the institution of war in 1984. The slogan was War is Peace, and more or less wars were not to be won or lost but existed to perpetuate themselves or “wage another war.” This in no way bears any resemblance to modern times, where we only do wars for good reasons with clear goals and objectives.
That last part was sarcasm. We’re always at war, but it’s always somewhere else, and even if we try to understand the reasons, sometimes they seem unknowable. This leads to disillusionment, at least for me. I genuinely want to care about what’s going on in the world, but most of the time I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. Facts are elusive. It almost feels like they’re intentionally obscured.
This makes me feel outrage. But does it? Because even in my first paragraph, I couldn’t help but be frivolous and detached. I don’t like that there is room in my mind and heart for the suffering of others, but there is.
I was listening to my favorite history podcast last night as they talked about the western front of the Great War. As these guys do, they were laughing a bit about the plight of the soldiers in the trenches. I get it. You can’t cry all day long. It’s not practical. Dark humor is sometimes necessary to exist in a dark world.
What bothered me about the humor was the selectivity of it. That trench life (and death) was unimaginably bad. Some of the worst conditions ever devised by men. No sleep. Plagued with rats. Bodies everywhere, most of them your friends. Having to kill other people. Lice. Fleas. Constant. Stolen youth. Over and over, day after day.
And they’re making light of it. Again, I get it. You wanna talk about misery without interruption for a couple hours straight, no one will listen. But I think it’s something else. It’s okay to laugh at war. Would these guys make jokes about other kinds of historical suffering? I don’t think so. The plight of miners or railroad workers in the late 1800s was terrible. It would be downright insensitive to laugh about their suffering. You would be looked down at.
What is that? Well, it’s hypocrisy, people giving in to fashion, etc. Also, war somehow gets a pass. In every era, it is made culturally acceptable. Those in charge need people to fight. If people stopped fighting, it would be a disaster. Why? Don’t worry about that part. If War is Peace, I guess it works the other way round.
We have to get through the day, and we can’t strap the suffering of all on our back. It’s not possible. Maybe just take an interest at the suffering that’s promoted and condemned. Don’t give up on truth and compassion. Because that would suck.
Cheers and see you after.
