Beautiful war

[Mashika]

Today, i got a screen capture sent by a friend i had not talked to in a very long time

Basically it said something like "sometimes, art is the face of death" or similar

Idea being, humans are capable of the most beautiful art, but also capable of the most destruction without purpose in this world

I think the picture that came with the comment explains a lot. Such beautiful plane, but if you use it for what it was designed and built for, it just becomes a tool for blood and suffering, and nothing much otherwise

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/attachment.php?attachmentid=43696&d=1590411167

[Sunny-side-up]

So true Mashika, we even add human and animal expression to them.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcTaT4uZnX-8qrBQXSrb0Du_wajoX5CI0zZp_cZ-VxMXX-nxieoS&usqp=CAU

[bobme]

So true Mashika, we even add human and animal expression to them.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcTaT4uZnX-8qrBQXSrb0Du_wajoX5CI0zZp_cZ-VxMXX-nxieoS&usqp=CAU

Agree sunny. but there is more to this that I may not be able to explain for to understand.

I do not know what a screen capture is Mashika, I am not into the smart phones, or the junk tech stuff. I am only into the reallity of things happinig now.

The masculinity is going away from the males, the femineitety frome the females, since this smart crap started.

Thoug it is hard for me to watch, I still have my knowing, that there is nothing to fear at all. only you can decide what to fear, or or simply ignore.

The beliefs you and all others, including myself, must be looked into more deeply
So understanding can occur.


Nothing can harm you,unless you fear it, Or give it your attentions of grief.

[Kryztian]

I drove through a neighboring town last night and there were banners along the street hanging from lamp posts showing town residents who were enlisted in the military services, all of them young people. They were glorifying there service. "They are protecting our freedoms" is what I imagine someone said at town hall when they decided to put those banners up.


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Memorial_Amphitheater_-_rear_pediment_-_Arlington_National_Cemetery_-_2011.JPG/800px-Memorial_Amphitheater_-_rear_pediment_-_Arlington_National_Cemetery_-_2011.JPG
Detail of the inscription over the rear entrance to Arlington Memorial
Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, in
the United States. The amphitheater was dedicated on May 15, 1920. The
inscription reads: "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori". This is a line
from a poem by the ancient poet Horace. In English, it means "It is sweet
and fitting to die for one's country."

I hope that one day people will begin to understand what warfare and military dominance is really about, about securing world power for a global elite that wants to take the resources from the earth and reap the wealth from it, while paying as little money as possible to those who do the work. About destroying cities and infrastructure, so that they can be rebuilt with loans from the World Bank and IMF, turning self sufficient nations into debt slaves.

[Sunny-side-up]

So true Mashika, we even add human and animal expression to them.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcTaT4uZnX-8qrBQXSrb0Du_wajoX5CI0zZp_cZ-VxMXX-nxieoS&usqp=CAU

Agree sunny. but there is more to this that I may not be able to explain for to understand.

I do not know what a screen capture is Mashika, I am not into the smart phones, or the junk tech stuff. I am only into the reallity of things happinig now.

The masculinity is going away from the males, the femineitety frome the females, since this smart crap started.

Thoug it is hard for me to watch, I still have my knowing, that there is nothing to fear at all. only you can decide what to fear, or or simply ignore.

The beliefs you and all others, including myself, must be looked into more deeply
So understanding can occur.


Nothing can harm you,unless you fear it, Or give it your attentions of grief.

Yes to see and know, then you can understand, don't fear.
'Know the enemy' as they say, then you can understand and behave accordingly, not in fear.

[Open Minded Dude]

Reminds me of the 'beautiful missiles' for Syria.

PRHXWpthWgE

[thepainterdoug]

Beauty can be within many things including natures Cheetah, which is beautiful in its pursuit of of its prey . I have always loved planes, ships , cars and even guns in their design and symmetry etc, but one has to be able to detach meaning from their form. The Stealth planes are truly beautiful as well as the P51 Mustangs of old

And a golf club can be used to kill someone.

[Ben]

Kryztian,


Thanks for reminding me of the quote by Horace.


When studying English in higher school, my amazing, and rebelious english teacher assigned us to read and interpret the poem of the same title, by the world war 1 poet Wilfred Owen.


It moved me so very deeply, and here it is:


Dulce et Decorum Est

By Wilfred Owen (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/wilfred-owen)

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.



Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.



In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.



If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

The only difference in the title's meaning, dulce est decorum pro patria mori, is instead of it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country, it says 'it is noble and fitting to die for ones country'.



That poem changed my perception of the world in quite a profound manner.

[AutumnW]

Ben Macdonald,

All wars should be seen as a defeat. World War 2, which was seen as a justifiable war of defence against the Nazis, is rarely viewed for what it was. Naziism was an outgrowth of the immense suffering of the Germans, post WW1 -- a stupid run-away war between inbred aristocratic cousins...a war fought for the glory of twits.

Your poem captures the wholesale slaughter and depravity of the first World War.

Very hard to detach meaning from objective art form of weapons.

Memorial Day should mean "I remember" in a historical sense.

[rgray222]

Given that this is the memorial weekend it seems appropriate for a bit of a rant. We need to change the way we memorialize war. We need to memorialize invention, math, science, space exploration, art, literature, humor, and language. Yes, wars have happened since the beginning of time and there is no reason not to memorialize lives that were lost. But we do not need to erect massive war memorials on prime real estate all over Europe and the USA. Lets put memorials right in the center of these cities that memorializes the best of mankind not the worst. Let's move the war memorials to the outskirts of these cities.

Let stop sending young children on field trips that showcase war. Let these children start to admire explorers, people of science, leaders that govern away from war and toward peace. How did memorial day (or weekend) get hijacked by the military?

Don't get me wrong, I am not sure that war isn't necessary sometimes, but it should be the court of last resort. Hopefully, as man evolves more fully war will become unnecessary and we will be able to do away with all military forces worldwide. That said there is no reason under the sun to confine memorial day to war. War should occupy the smallest part of our memory not the largest.