The Most Offensive Thing Of All
In the era of the culture war that we currently find ourselves in, the rhetoric is almost mind-numbing in its shallowness. We hear talk of words being violence, and how misgendering or dead naming someone is the ultimate insult. We also have microaggressions, where literally anything can be interpreted as mortally offensive.
With all these battles going on in western culture, it's almost understandable that when real war breaks out some people find it difficult to differentiate between that and the battles they wage from their keyboards day in and day out.
Now, just to be clear, by real war, I mean war where people actually die, for real, like, physically, literally die. You know, because they're blown to pieces, or chopped up, or mowed down with AK-47s. Like, real war. War like what we're seeing in the middle East right now.
As hard as it is for those who have to deal with people picking on them because of what they look like, or how they think, or what they believe about themselves, believe me when I say that it's so much worse in the vast majority of the rest of the world. I think most of us in the West have totally lost sight of what war really is. This was painfully apparent in the reactions we saw here after the October 7th Hamas attacks.
It's easy for us to sit here and say stuff like, “war is hell” without ever having been to war, but I think Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H* said it much better in this conversation with the chaplain, Father Mulcahy:
Hawkeye: War isn’t Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.
Father Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye?
Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?
Father Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.
Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them — little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.
This is even true of those we send across the ocean with guns to fight these battles. Before World War II broke out, most of the kids who got on a plane or a ship were busy thinking about their education, their girlfriends, boyfriends or spouses.
Thousands of these kids never even came back, except in a box. And yes, I'm in my fifties so I consider anyone under the age of 20 to be a kid. Enjoy it while you can.
That's real war, with a real cost, and you get a lot more than just your feelings hurt if you're involved in something like that.
But here in the West, where we are relatively insulated from the effects of actual war; where we can watch it unfold on our computer screens in real time in places we've never been, and argue about who's right and who's wrong with people we've never seen while listening to a podcast telling us why our understanding of the facts is so much more reasonable than everyone else's - here, where it's so easy to exist, we feel like we have somehow earned the right to tell those doing the actual fighting what the real story is.
Back in the land of perpetual offense, aka, the US and Canada, we have decided that there is nothing more important than not offending someone. But guess what - in the real world, offense is not only inevitable, it's necessary. It's necessary because it shows you that you're not really the princess you think you are. It shows you that sorry, you don't actually have the right to dictate how people should act around you. If you happen to believe you do have that right, then I welcome you to this land of perpetual offense. I'm quite sure you'll have a shitty existence here.
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I do actually believe that we in the West have much valuable insight to share regarding war. That experience centres mainly around living in a democracy. I'm really hoping that by now it's apparent that democratic countries are just better places to live. At least, from the constant flow of people coming here from countries that are not democracies, you'd think it would be self-evident. This insight I'm referring to is the belief that everyone should live in a democracy. Not because we do, but because it's the best thing for human civilization and survival.
Here's the thing: the reason people come here from all these other countries is the exact same reason so many of our citizens are constantly offended. It's because here they're free to worship whom they want to worship, they're free to love whom they want to love, and they're free to wear (or not wear) any kind of clothing they want. They're even free to criticize the government and anyone else they feel like criticising.
They may tell you they're here for their job, or because some of their family came here before them, but the real reason they're here is because of the freedoms we enjoy.
Now here's the thing about freedom: it's scary as shit - especially in the land of perpetual offense. It's scary because it carries with it the inherent risk that our freedoms may impinge on someone else's freedom, or at the very least inconvenience or offend someone else. And all this for the very low price of a little bit of tolerance. Strangely enough, it's this tiny bit of currency that is so difficult for so many here to part with.
And so if you're not willing to take that chance - the chance of offending and of being offended - then you don't deserve to reap any of the benefits of this freedom either.
To put this very bluntly, the freedom these kids died for is messy, and scary, and risks offending at every turn, but for us to knowingly give up even a fraction of that freedom is the most offensive thing of all.
I didn't realize you were a veteran, Ken