Most 'men', whether men or women, wish above all else to be comfortable, and thought is a pre-eminently uncomfortable process; it brings to the individual far more suffering than happiness in a semi-civilised world which still goes to war.
- Vera Brittain -
I'm currently re-reading a powerful and thought-provoking book called Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain, published in 1933, one of the most celebrated autobiographical books of the World War One era.
It is the author's memoirs over the years 1900 to 1925 covering her early years and upbringing, falling in love (with Roland Leighton), Oxford education, the outbreak of World War One and losing her fiancé (Leighton), beloved brother (Edward) and friend close friend (Victor) to the war, her time as an aid detachment nurse on the Western Front and various social issues and observations around the war and how it impacted upon the post-war era, the youth of the time, and the struggle women faced to establish themselves in a society that was barely tolerant of educated women.
Brittain (1893-1970), a feminist, nurse, Oxford-educated writer, pacifist, world-renowned public-speaker, wife and mother tells a captivating, sad and powerful story and, after her war-time experiences and losses which fundamentally changed her, campaigned against war for most of her life. Losing her fiancé Roland Leighton and her brother Edward devastated her and she honoured them by dedicating her life from then onwards to spreading her anti-war message.
There is a movie called Testament of Youth (2015) starring Alicia Vikander as Brittain, Kit Harington as Roland and Taron Egerton as Edward (plus other actors as well) and is well-worth a watch. It's powerful, sad and thought-provoking in its own right, but the book is the best place to start - both may possibly bring tears to your eyes.
As I've been reading the book (again) it's caused me to think about many things, has challenged long-held beliefs, confirmed some of them and has led me to think more deeply into yet others - it's the sort of book that makes a person feel and whilst that can be confronting it can also be enlightening. I'm not inclined to open up too much at all on those thoughts and feelings here, they're too personal, however I thought it might be an opportunity to pose a question to you folks.
I hear many comments about how humanity is moving in the 'right direction', that we're getting better than we once were and moving away from war towards a more peaceful existence. I don't believe that though. Sure, there's people out there doing some good here and there, maybe even you, but wars still occur, armed conflicts and everything in between on a large and small scale and I do not see it ceasing anytime soon. It's convenient to think we're headed in the right direction but for thousands of years there's been no progress, no cessation of conflict and wars...indeed, the only progress has been developing better ways to kill each other. So...where's the change?
I know many will disagree with me and that's ok, but taking a look around the world today, truly seeing the wars and armed conflicts that exist even as you read these words...Does that look like peace? I think not.
Below is a disturbingly long list of (some) of histories' wars and as someone who enjoys history I've studied many of them.
There's so many more conflicts that are not represented below; think, Viking raids and wars in Britain or the many Roman conflicts, inter-town/village wars, dictatorships and regimes that caused bloodshed - (Idi Amin, Uganda and the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia come to mind here) - Humans have a long history of conflict. And what if acts of terrorism were included in the list below, the World Trade Centre situation in 2001, Charlie Hebdo shooting in 2017, Boko Haram Uprising in 2009, Mogadishu Bombings of 2017, Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, Bali Bombings in 2002, and many, many others...not wars but conflicts nonetheless. Are humans are getting better and moving towards peace? Yeah, nope.
Trojan War (dates uncertain) - First Messenian War (c. 735–715 BCE) - Lelantine War (c.720–680 BCE; dates uncertain) - Second Messenian War (c. 660 BCE) - Greco-Persian Wars (492–449 BCE) - Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE) - Lamian War (323–322 BCE) - First Punic War (264–241 BCE) - Second Punic War (218–201 BCE) - Third Punic War (149–146 BCE) - Gallic Wars (58–50 BCE) - Jinshin-no-ran (672) - Norman Conquest (1066) - Crusades (1095–1291; sporadically thereafter) - Gempei War (1180–85) - Barons’ War (1264–67) - Hundred Years’ War (c. 1337–1453) - War of the Eight Saints (1375–78) - Hundred Years’ War (c. 1337–1453) - Thirteen Years’ War (1454–66) - Wars of the Roses (1455–85) - Ōnin War (1467–77) - Count’s War (1534–36) - Araucanian Wars (1541–58) - Livonian War (1558–83) - Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648) - War of the Three Henrys (1587–89) - Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648) - Kalmar War (1611–13) - Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) - Powhatan War (1622–44) - Bishops’ Wars (1639; 1640) - English Civil Wars (1642–51) - First Northern War (1655–60) - War of Devolution (1667–68) - King Philip’s War (1675–76) - War of the Grand Alliance (1689–97) - King William’s War (1689–97) - Second Northern War (1700–21) - War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) - War of the Emboabas (1708–09) - Carnatic Wars (1746–48; 1749–54; 1758–63) - Queen Anne’s War (1702–13) - Yamasee War (1715–16) - War of the Polish Succession (1733–38) - War of Jenkins’ Ear (1739–48) - War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48) - King George’s War (1744–48) - French and Indian War (1754–63) - Silesian Wars (1740–42; 1744–45; 1756–62) - Seven Years’ War (1756–63) - Lord Dunmore’s War (1774) - Rohilla War (1774) - American Revolution (1775–83) - First Maratha War (1775–82) - War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–79) - Cape Frontier Wars (1779–1879) - French Revolution (1787–99) - French revolutionary wars (1792–1801) - Cape Frontier Wars (1779–1879) - War of the Oranges (1801) - Tripolitan War (1801–05) - Second Maratha War (1803–05) - Third Maratha War (1817–18) - Napoleonic Wars (1803–15) - Black War (1804–30) - Peninsular War (1808–14) - War of 1812 (1812–15) - Creek War (1813–14) - War of Greek Independence (1821–32) - Padri War (1821–37) - Naning War (1831–32) - Pastry War (1838–39) - Mexican-American War (1846–48) - Crimean War (1853–56) - Bleeding Kansas (1854–59) - American Civil War (1861–65) - War of the Triple Alliance (1864/65–70) - Seven Weeks’ War (1866) - Selangor Civil War (1867–73) - Franco-German War (1870–71) - Acehnese War (1873–1904) - Red River Indian War (1874–75) - Serbo - Turkish War (1876–78) - Anglo-Zulu War (1879) - War of the Pacific (1879–83) - Gun War (1880–81) - Sino - French War (1883–85) - Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885–86) - Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) - Spanish-American War (1898) - Philippine-American War (1899–1902) - The War of a Thousand Days (1899–1903) - Philippine-American War (1899–1902) - South African War (1899–1902) - The War of a Thousand Days (1899–1903) - Boxer - Rebellion (1900–01) - Moro Wars (1901–13) - Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) - Pig War (1906–09) - Mexican Revolution (1910–20) - Italo-Turkish War (1911–12) - World War I (1914–18) - Baltic War of Liberation (1918–20) - Russian Civil War (1918–20) - Russo-Polish War (1919–20) - Rif War (1921–26) - Chaco War (1932–35) - Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–36) - Spanish Civil War (1936–39) - Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) - Phony War (1939–40; no actual hostilities) - Russo-Finnish War (1939–40) - World War II (1939–45) - Greek Civil War (1944–45; 1946–49) - Arab-Israeli wars (1948–49; 1956; 1967; 1973; 1982) - Korean War (1950–53) - Algerian War (1954–62) - Vietnam War (1954–75) - Six-Day War (1967) - War of Attrition (1969–70) - Yom Kippur War (1973) - Dirty War (1976–83) - Afghan War (1978–92) - Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) - Falkland Islands War (1982) - Persian Gulf War (1990–91) 0 Bosnian conflict (1992–95) - Kosovo conflict (1998–99) - Eritrean–Ethiopian War (1998-2000) - Guinea-Bissau Civil War (1998-99) - Second Congo War (1998-2003) - Al-Qaeda insurgency in Yemen (1998-2022) - 1999 East Timorese crisis (1999-2005) - Second Liberian Civil War (1999-2003) - Second Chechen War (1999-2009) - Islamist insurgency in Iraqi Kurdistan (2001-2003) - War on terror (2001-2021) - Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines (2002-2015)
This second reading of Testament of Youth has been an incredibly moving experience, possibly because I'm reading it twenty years after I first read the book and I'm a different man now; I think and feel things differently - It's been an amazingly powerful force upon my senses, thoughts and emotions right down to my core. The movie, well I have a massive crush on Alicia Vikander (such a great actress) so I've seen it several times also, with the same effect; it's moved me. I know you folks may never read the book or may never see the movie, but I'm interested to hear any thoughts you may have on the subject matter in general.
Wars rage all around us right this moment and the path through history upon which humanity has travelled is paved with the detritus of war, bleached bones and death, destruction and devastation that has occurred from our earliest days right to this very day and I wonder what you think about our situation: War and [no] peace.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
[Original and AI free]
Image(s) in this post are my own
Wars/dates information from here
