‘Click to read more’ has been a much more frequent sight on the Facebook posts of my friends, mostly students and artists. The past few weeks have seen ideologies rise in sectors long dormant. Pacifism is back, but only, it seems, on social media. I am talking, of course, about the Syria debate, which feels uncomfortably raw. I certainly don’t remember many other occasions in which the question ‘To bomb or not to bomb’ has been so bluntly laid out to the public. It is a question our generation is not comfortable with. A surprising amount of people have swung towards vehement pacifism, at least on my News Feed. Others (most commonly those with limited intellect) think that we should obliterate the entire country, just to be on the safe side. (Sadly that is not an exaggeration, but an actual quote…ignorance is violence, it seems.)
But before we go on, I’d like to clarify that this is a post on the UK’s response to Syria, particularly with regards to the younger, pacifist-ish generation. I am not arguing particularly one way or the other re. the bombings, and it would be to miss the point to read the article in that way.
The Fear Method
A lot of people just feel like we can’t ignore Daesh anymore, surely it is time for action. The Paris Massacre is largely responsible for this. Before Paris, ISIS (or whatever they are called this week) was a concerning bubble, but easily written off as just another middle eastern turmoil. It’s funny what happens to people’s sense of empathy when the fight is in their back garden. The Government and Media have jumped on this recent attack in ways that they have not done previously, the Scare-Mongering Machine in overdrive. Now don’t get me wrong- ISIS are scary. Mass murders in town centres are scary. But it is concerning to me the way the government has manipulated this fear into a war thirsty state, with David Cameron giving speeches not unlike the ‘2 minutes hate’ in Orwell’s 1984. Basically, population control, performed by reducing logical, civilised humans to blood thirsty animals.The tool to complete this operation? Fear. A good article on this was written by a Robert Higgs for http://www.independent.org, entitled ‘Fear: The Foundation of Government’s Power’. In his article, Higgs makes the point that without fear, no government would last 24 hours, let alone 4 years.Think about it, and really a lot of human motivation is down to fear. Don’t abolish Trident, we will all die. Don’t even vote Left in fact, or our money will do the disappear-y thing again that obviously was everything to do with Labour and nothing to do with American Sub Prime Mortgage bonds entirely out of the control of the British Voter (If the topic happens to interest you, check out this post). No, Freedom is a luxury for those who don’t live in fear, and as Politicians and the Press love to remind us, these are dangerous times.
The Pacifists and The Country At War
So now the Fear weapon has been deployed on the public. Only, for some reason, only half of them are convinced that bombing is the answer. Surely that’s the whole point of the hate frenzy, just like in Orwell’s book. It stops people stopping and asking “But will this actually help?”. But this is exactly what many people are asking. And to me, it feels like the potential beginnings of something. Something like, a new way of solving problems. Whatever it is, somewhere, in our lives of Western comfort, of imagined morals, we have lost our appetite for war. ‘Give £3 for Syrian refugees this Christmas’ reads a sign on the tube. Meanwhile the newspaper reports of bombs heading straight for Syria. People are confused and in the blur something very important is happening. People are asking whether bombing a country solves problems or creates them. And that is a brilliant question to ask (and one to be expected for a generation that grew up under Bush/Blair).
So Who’s The Baddie?
People are very simple. It seems that most people are happy with the idea of killing ISIS militants, the villains and terrorists that they remember killed people at a gig in Paris. From there it gets more complicated. Some people (again, remember what I said about limited intelligence here) are happy to kill foreigners or muslims or whoever looks a bit different and doesn’t support West Ham, and therefore have no problem with the possibility of civilian casualties in Syria. But a lot of people do have a problem with that. A big one. A lot of people are struggling to stand behind a government authorising bombings when there is that uncertainty.And this group is what interests me.
The Uncomfortable Question
With the question ‘To bomb or not to bomb?’ came a responsibility, even if it was our government, not us, who voted. As soon as this debate became public, responsibility became public. I am curious to what extent the pacifists will stand by their peace time ideals. Whether they will push back against the war bringers even further.ISIS are brutes, we know that. The public are comfortable with that knowledge. But the new generation, the ones that have been denouncing the Iraq War for years, don’t see themselves as the type to start bombing somewhere. Even if it’s the right thing to do, not that I’m saying it is.
The National Loss
Ultimately, whether the bombing campaign is successful in depleting Daesh, whether there are civilian casualties, whether the bombs radicalise more moderates, it is our generation, the ones who don’t quite agree, that will have to live with that. To sit and watch it. And in that, we have our great collateral damage. The loss of a generation’s belief that it could do no harm.
“Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.”
—Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513
Dream.Think.Speak 