Please read my essay, it is very insightful and may give you some new ideas about the world.
There are many instances when two or more countries or regions come upon a disagreement of some sort. Whether it is about natural resources or money, the worst case scenario in a disagreement is war. For most of my life, I have believed that fighting is the wrong thing. I would see instances of people fighting over completely pointless things when they could have easily been resolved by talking it out. War is never the answer. In fact, the only time it could ever be the answer is on a history test.
Like I have already said, I have always been against war. However, I could not show any proof that there is always an alternative to fighting. That changed however, when I saw the movie Ghandi. I saw a man who managed to settle any dispute through completely non-violent ways. “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”, is probably the most important quote of Ghandi for me. It shows a point but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that his words were completely true.
The other prominent anti-war figure that really spoke to me was John Lennon. Even though Lennon never completely proved any points, he made some very thoughtful ideas. “All we are saying is give peace a chance”. Of course, we would never know completely if peace could ever work because the world has never tried to attain it. How do we know that peace is the only answer if nobody will try it?
I would like to conclude by asking you to think of a time when has war ever benefited every side. It’s not possible because it’s never been like that. In a civilized dispute, people manage to settle disagreements to benefit both sides as well as possible. Vietnam, for instance, was a totally pointless war. Nothing was accomplished and hundreds of thousands of innocent lives were lost. Nobody gained anything from this ordeal. In the current war in Iraq, anybody can see that nothing is being accomplished and it’s most likely that nothing will. The United States have been in Iraq for 6 years and nothing positive has happened on either end. All I am saying is that war is always completely pointless. There is always a way to go around it and it never completely benefits all sides.
It’s hard to say how this philosophy of mine will affect my future. I know that it will affect the way I act in certain situations and that it will affect the way I vote, but it’s hard to say how it will do so in the long run. I am a musician so maybe my anti-war attitude will show itself in my songs. Five years ago I could never for the life of me imagine where I would be now, so looking 10 years or so in the future is very fuzzy. I do know for a fact however, as long as I live, this personal philosophy will always stay with me.