Thought: Before I Became A Pacifist

I was a mess

Before I became a pacifist I used to wonder if I would have been better off joining the Royal Navy. I was stuck in a career in IT that I hated, and couldn't see a way out to change direction, and so used to ponder if I would have been happier with a career for life, good training, and a good pension on retirement, after all, that's how jobs in the military are sold to people in the UK. None of the adverts actually mention that you may be required to point a weapon at one of your brothers or sisters across the world and pull the trigger. Sure, not every job in the military is directly involved with pulling a trigger on some form of gun or artillery, but you're either pulling the trigger or supporting someone that is pulling the trigger. I also know that some people are medics or translators or some other more noble career, but the fact is, they still do it for the war machine. 

In my darker thoughts a few years ago, which is normally when my depression was at its strongest, I used to wonder if I could shoot an enemy in the head on the basis that he was trying to shoot me in the head and it was a case of kill or be killed (or at least shot at). I came to the conclusion that I could do this quite easily and wouldn't lose a second of sleep over it, after all, it was me or them. I'd seen documentaries about PTSD and all that and decided that I would not be affected. As I said, I was depressed and my thoughts were quite dark. 

The problem is, war is not really that straight forward, many, probably the majority, of deaths in war are not a shot from a rifle from a soldier in a 'me or them' situation, certainly in modern warfare, but they are the result of heavy indiscriminate munitions fired from a distance, sometimes tens or hundreds and even thousands of miles. The victims are not some human with a uniform who is pointing a gun at another human wearing a slightly different uniform, no, the victims are often innocent families that just happen to be unfortunate enough to be used as human shields by someone who is just trying to avoid being killed. 

Now, much of my writing is judgemental in tone, but I would like to reiterate that I too once was a Normie, a Borg, a Sheep or whatever other apt descriptive noun us non woke awoken choose to use for our visually challenged friends and family, so I mean no insult personally or individually, but as much as I try to be more understanding of the unwillingness to wake up that I keep encountering in most people, I do need to vent my frustration, and this is where I do it. I also say all of this while having friends in the military, all of whom are wonderful human beings, who joined the military for the career, and not to kill Johnny Foreigner. 

So what exactly am I trying to say? 

Why the hell do humans keep signing up to do the dirty work of psychopathic leaders and happily kill and maim their brothers and sisters just because their leader tells them to? Everyone on this planet is a brother or sister, father or mother, son or daughter. Every single death in war would be avoided if we all just refused to kill in the name of our leaders. Just how can it be illegal for someone to kill a man who has raped his daughter, but not illegal for Barack Obomber to authorise 10000 drone strikes in 8 years, with untold innocent civilians caught up in the collateral damage; and those who were the targets were only the poor hapless souls who happened to have bought the military propaganda from their own leaders. MY GOD! Why do more people not understand or see the futility of war, they all just join up for their own career, to line their own pockets, because they have been programmed not to even think about it. 

The night before 911, George Bush senior was having a meeting with the Bin Laden family. George W Bush and Henry Kissinger allegedly carry on with Putin like they are old friends. Meanwhile Joe Biden's son is allegedly up to his eyeballs in billion dollar Ukrainian corruption (when he's not allegedly engaged in nefarious sexual activity, or off his face on crack). Tony Blair and George W Bush allegedly lied about WMDs to force a war and send thousands of their own children to die for nothing (well, regime change actually), and then having those that are about to give evidence at enquiries allegedly suicided to keep them quiet. I could allegedly go on and on and on. 

Then when the military come home, if they are lucky enough to come home outside of a body bag, they get to sleep on the pavement, or to apply to a charity to help with their newly acquired disability, or mental illness, or just generally struggle with life without the institution that told them exactly what to do and exactly how to do it. Now I know this is not the case for all of those that serve, and yes, many leave with the feeling that it was the best thing they ever did and got their full pension after a full term service relatively unaffected, these are the lucky majority. 

Even before I knew I was a pacifist I had a problem with the hypocrisy of Remembrance Day. It's not that I don't feel for the poor souls that paid the ultimate price or continue to pay a price, of course I do, that's the actual point, I care every single day of the year, not just 11/11, and am not scared to call out the madness. My problem with Remembrance Day is it allows all the Borg, and those in power who send them to die for their profit, to virtue signal their gratitude or show some compassion for these victims of the war machine, while convincing themselves that it was a price worth paying in the long run, and aren't they all heroes. I would argue that, while some of them are indeed brave and have acted heroically in the theatre of war to save or protect their comrades, they are all, at the end of the day, victims of propaganda from a corporate war machine that have been convinced to fight under false pretences who have, in some cases, murdered or maimed their brothers and sisters, not because they posed a direct threat to them, or have slighted them personally, but simply because their boss has told them to, and they didn't question this order because to do so would have seen them punished by potential imprisonment, or not so long ago, shot and killed for cowardice. 

Now I'm really just rambling here, I appreciate that, but that's because it's such a complex thing to explain to someone who does not see it, and I'm sure many others have felt similarly at times. 

When surrounded by the Borg it's just so hard to listen to their taught, parroted or just unconsidered opinions, and keep your mouth shut for fear of starting an argument that you have no chance of winning. This could be an open discussion about Poppies, The Royal Family, face masks, lockdowns, or, of course, the mRNA stabbings. I fully appreciate how this makes me sound, but it is painfully true, but what is also true, is that this Borg, used to be me.