War is a drug

I am currently reading a book called "War is a Force that Gives us Meaning" and it talks about how war is a drug. We get addicted to the chaos and high that war inflicts on us. We become intrigued and sucked into the myth of war that the movies and the press portray and blinds us from what it really is, organized murder. Just in the 1990's 62 million people died from the wars being fought all over the world. 62 million! Many of the wars were for petty reasons.

You can say there are two sides to every war but they are two and the same. Both sides believe they are just, they are the right that needs to fix the wrong. Both sides paint the opposing as pure evil and it is their duty to destroy it. By believing that the enemy is evil and corrupt this war that they are now engaged in give them meaning to their lives. The soldiers who go against all logic and thrust themselves into eminent danger, knowing they very well might die today, do this willingly because they believe they are fighting for a cause, they are fighting for their country, they are fighting for the man next to him... and therefore their otherwise insignificant lives now have meaning.

Humans are fighters by nature. Even on an individual level we are all fighters. Anytime someone publicly insults you, there becomes this desire to inflict pain on them. And more often than not, boys (yes i say only boys cause girls fight on a mental level and rarely engage in physical fighting) act on that instinct and we get a fight... at school... at a bar... at a concert... wherever... and for reasons the rest of us probably don't understand.

I have to admit I am drawn to fighting in movies... but I hate fighting in real life. Try to figure that out. Some of my favorite movies are 300 or Green Street Hooligans. Both completely about fighting and I am intrigued by the characters for their triumphs and bravery.. and their sheer macho-savage-tough-guyness. I eat it up! And then there is real life where I dated one of these fighters guys and hated it... and wound up ending it with him because of the fighting.

I have seen fights and I personally don't understand it, but there was a line in Green Street Hooligans that stuck with me. The movie is about soccer gangs in England that just fight other soccer gangs and the main character said "It's not about knowing your friends have your back, its about knowing you have theirs"