Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2003-11-12 05:22 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2003-11-12 05:22 pm
War
I just had to explain war to Little Fayoumis. I explained it in terms he could understand.
He knows how scary it is when grown-ups fight and he knows how scary it is when someone is shooting. I told him that war was that scary. He said that he could be a grownup. I told him that war is still that scary.
I showed him on the map where we are. I showed him where Iraq is. I said that over there, there are grown-ups being mad at each other and fighting and shooting and using bombs, and over there, there are people getting hurt -- like when he scrapes his foot and he cries, only when he cries it hurts for a couple minutes. There, there are people who cry for hours.
And I told him that how war happens is when people are both saying "I'm right and you're wrong!" and they can't say, "Well, maybe I was wrong," or "Maybe we're both right." And how war really boils down to not being able to be nice.
There are further complexities, of course. I'll have to explain later that some things are worse than war, and that the only good reason to have a war is to make people stop doing things that are worse than war. ...Though I'm not sure I'm up to explaining "worse than war" just yet.
He knows how scary it is when grown-ups fight and he knows how scary it is when someone is shooting. I told him that war was that scary. He said that he could be a grownup. I told him that war is still that scary.
I showed him on the map where we are. I showed him where Iraq is. I said that over there, there are grown-ups being mad at each other and fighting and shooting and using bombs, and over there, there are people getting hurt -- like when he scrapes his foot and he cries, only when he cries it hurts for a couple minutes. There, there are people who cry for hours.
And I told him that how war happens is when people are both saying "I'm right and you're wrong!" and they can't say, "Well, maybe I was wrong," or "Maybe we're both right." And how war really boils down to not being able to be nice.
There are further complexities, of course. I'll have to explain later that some things are worse than war, and that the only good reason to have a war is to make people stop doing things that are worse than war. ...Though I'm not sure I'm up to explaining "worse than war" just yet.