[lit-ideas] Helm's World
- From: "Simon Ward" <sedward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 15:56:57 +0100
'...war is part of the human condition. It is a fact of life.'
Whose life though?
Is war a neceassary condition of modern society? No, since modern wars are
almost exclusively fought in underdeveloped regions of the world - the
exceptions being those states and areas that have an underlying racial tension
that has lain dormant. Those aside, war is a fact of life only where modern
society isn't, in Africa, in portions of the Middle East, places where the
trappings of modern civilisation are few and far between.
And in Helm's world of course. A world where good and evil are defined by
religious belief. A world where war is good and peace is not. A world where the
law of the gun is paramount. A world where those with arms conquer by right and
where those without are rightfully doomed to extinction. A world where empire
usurps power from the nation state for the sake of self interest. A world where
the innate desire to make war is, by necessity, exported to where it won't
impact upon a civilized existence.
And no doubt they deserve it, these thirdworlders. They haven't got a civilized
religion so what do they expect. They read from a text that is at least fifteen
hundred years old, they're living in the middle ages. You wouldn't find
civilized people living their lives according to a religious manual a couple of
millenia in age.
No, it's my honest opinion that you wouldn't.
Simon
In Dartmoor (where people worry about their gardens, about the viability of the
local pub, about the state of the cricket pitch, about the number of foxes,
about a whole host of small things, but not about war war war)
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