Chapter 7: Personal Responsibility

One of the most unfortunate things about war is that the people who fight are ordinary people who somehow become convinced that they need to take up arms against an external enemy who presents an existential threat.  Wars are not fought by the elites who pass the laws and make the decisions that send people to the battlefield.  They are not fought by the politicians who decide that a certain country presents a threat that needs to be neutralized or by the journalists who write opinion pieces glorifying war.  They are not fought by the think tanks who come up with slick arguments in support of war or by the weapons manufacturers who churn out the instruments of death.  They are fought by ordinary people who are brainwashed into blindly and unquestioningly believing what they are told.  The soldiers who sacrifice their lives on the battlefield are unfortunately seen as nothing more than a mass of disposable bodies that are used to forward the agendas of the elites.  Their lives mean nothing to the people who send them out to die.  They are treated as nothing more than numbers, not people with families, dreams, ambitions and a higher purpose.  The death of a soldier is not viewed as a tragic and avoidable loss of life but as an expected consequence of war.  Since the work of a soldier is to fight an enemy who is just as determined as they are to kill before getting killed, the death of a soldier is deemed a normal and acceptable part of war.  While the death of civilians is treated as regrettable and to be avoided at all costs, the death of a soldier is treated as if it is unimportant. This dehumanization is what allows wars to continue and we have all been brainwashed into accepting this as normal. 

War is nothing more than a scam that makes billions of dollars for certain people.  This is something that is acknowledged even by former soldiers who connect the dots once they see the reality of war and how meaningless it is.  When they compare the propaganda they were fed during training with the reality on the battlefield, those who are capable of reflection usually end up with moral injury.  They discover that the ideals they thought they were fighting for are nothing more than a mirage that completely vanishes on the battlefield.  Unfortunately, this reality of war is rarely talked about in the mainstream media that is completely captured by the war complex.  The ordinary person is only exposed to the narrative that calls for more and more war and rarely gets to hear any opposing ideas.  The only way we will come out of this rabbit hole is by people taking responsibility for themselves and thinking for themselves.  We have to reject the idea that we are nothing more than bodies that can be used to serve the agendas of the elites.

Should you join the military?

If people knew the truth about the war industry, no one would ever volunteer to join the military which is why they go to such great lengths to hide the reality of it.  The military is sold as a noble institution and working for the military is portrayed as a heroic service to your country, an act of valour which protects our freedom and democracy.  In the West, the military is supposedly the institution that guarantees Western hegemony, which in turn maintains the so-called “rules-based order”.  It is assumed that this rules-based order is what we all want, even though no one ever tells us what these rules are, who wrote them and why we should obey them.  A military “career” – if killing people can be considered a career – is seen as prestigious and lucrative, with benefits that include travel to various exotic locations around the world.  But nobody tells the young men and women who join the military exactly what they are signing up for.  Before you decide to join the military, you need to understand that it is not an adventure that opens doors for you to explore the world and earn good money while you’re at it.  It is important to consider all the facts, not just what the PR machine churns out.  The thing no one mentions when they carry out their recruitment exercises is that joining the military is akin to signing a contract with the devil.  You are committing not only to killing people when called upon to do so but also sacrificing your own life in case you end up on the wrong side of the barrel.  Before signing such a contract, ask yourself if you are okay with that.  It’s not just about the money and the adventure but about the deeper questions that arise from such a commitment.  Is killing people something you agree with or would even think of doing in the normal course of life?  If not, why sign up for a career that requires you to do just that?  Such ethical questions are never addressed during the recruitment exercise.  This is about taking responsibility for yourself and the decisions you make.  You cannot wait until the day you find yourself on the battlefield to start asking questions.  When you join the military, you need to understand what you are signing up for.  You have to see beyond the enticements and see clearly what you will be getting yourself into.  Do not be fooled by the rosy picture of travelling the world and earning a good living for yourself and your family.  At some point, you will be called upon to fight, meaning you will be required to kill other people who are also trying to kill you.  This is what the military is at its core.  If you have watched a war movie, you know that the battlefield is a horrible mess of blood and gore.  Why would you consciously subject yourself to this?   Why would you volunteer for this when no one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to do so?  Is any amount of money worth the psychological suffering you will experience after seeing the reality of what war entails?  Are you ready to give up your limbs in service to someone else’s delusional and insane agenda?   Because the idea that war is a noble service to society is pure lunatic ideology.  Everything they tell us to justify war is pure propaganda and lies. We have been manipulated into believing that there is an enemy out there trying to destroy us when in reality the enmity is dreamt up by the very people who ask us to fight.  It is all for their benefit. 

The thing no one mentions when they carry out their recruitment exercises is that joining the military is akin to signing a contract with the devil.  You are committing not only to killing people when called upon to do so but also sacrificing your own life in case you end up on the wrong side of the barrel.  Before signing such a contract, ask yourself if you are okay with that. 

If you are lucky enough to escape death or bodily injuries on the battlefield, you need to consider the psychological wounds you are likely to suffer once you experience war.  Killing does not come naturally to most human beings and hence you cannot escape the consequences of going against your God-given nature.  When you kill others, you may tell yourself that you have done nothing wrong because we have been taught to justify evil for the “greater good”.   But the reality is that when you hurt others, you are hurting yourself first and foremost because we are all connected.  We have been taught to see ourselves not as spiritual beings but as slightly advanced animals.  But this is not true.  We are extensions of our creator and we are all connected at inner levels.  This is why many soldiers simply fall apart when they leave the battlefield.  We know that many soldiers suffer from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when they leave the battlefield.  They experience guilt, grief, regret and inner torment for their part in the war.  Many of them experience moral injury as a result of the things they saw on the battlefield.  These are the real effects of their attempt to deny their spiritual nature and the spiritual nature of those they harmed who are also created in God’s image.  The resulting trauma is undeniable, which is why we have high levels of suicide among soldiers.  The military of course pretends to study the cause of these suicides while ignoring the obvious cause which is that human beings are not wired to be killers. 

The other thing no one ever tells you when they recruit you into the military is that sexual assault and harassment are rampant within the military.   Why would you join an institution where your chances of being sexually assaulted are much higher than if you stayed out?  Why would you take an action that is against your own self-interest?  The military is a den of the worst human beings on earth and you need to be aware of this before you sign up.  The majority of people who join the military are decent people who unfortunately become deceived by the PR machine into believing that they are serving their country.  But we would be naïve not to expect that sociopaths would be attracted to a career in the military because it offers them the opportunity to harm people and get paid for it.  Therefore, before you join the military, be aware that you are joining an institution that is home to some of the worst people on the planet.  You can expect behaviours that are normally associated with sociopaths to be rampant in the military.   Before you sign that contract, ask yourself what the consequences will be for you personally.  Forget what everyone tells you.  Once you join the military, you will be on your own facing the consequences of your choices.   There will be no one to blame for whatever happens on the battlefield because no one forced you to join the military.  And if you think you will be able to quit if you don’t like it, think again.  The military is not an institution you can simply walk away from like any other institution.  You don’t get to quit just because you don’t like it.  You will have to see your contract through to the end.  Therefore, think twice, thrice, a hundred times before you decide to join the military. 

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Raise your awareness

One of the biggest problems we face concerning war is that most ordinary people simply feel that it has nothing to do with them.  We are programmed to believe that such topics are best left to the experts and that we have nothing to contribute.  The so-called “experts”, unfortunately, only lead us in one direction which is more war.  Their only qualification, in reality, is that they are the most aggressive people on the planet and therefore their voices are the loudest.  These people speak out aggressively and authoritatively about war, making everyone else feel as if they have nothing important to say.  We are made to feel as if our opinions do not matter.  Our opinions are made to look naïve and uninformed, so most of us simply lose interest and stop focusing on such issues, leaving the “experts” to say whatever they want.  The reality is that war is not a complicated subject that the average person cannot understand.  The reason we are made to feel like we don’t understand this subject is that the logic used to justify war is fallen logic, where good is made to appear evil and evil is made to appear good.  As an example, in the Russia-Ukraine war we are told that the West is sending massive amounts of weapons to Ukraine to support freedom and democracy in that country.  This doesn’t make sense.  We know logically that sending weapons to Ukraine only worsens and prolongs the war.  We are also told that the West is leading an economic offensive to punish Russia, even though we can see that the sanctions are only causing suffering to the West and the entire planet.  This action is completely illogical.  Because the logic used to justify war does not follow common sense, we are made to feel that it is too complicated for the average person to understand.  If anyone attempts to challenge this logic, they are viciously attacked and accused of all manner of things, which serves the purpose of silencing dissent and discouraging people from expressing their opinions for fear of being attacked.  This is the main reason why the topic of war is dominated by the most aggressive voices that keep the planet permanently at war.

As an example, in the Russia-Ukraine war we are told that the West is sending massive amounts of weapons to Ukraine to support freedom and democracy in that country.  This doesn’t make sense.  We know logically that sending weapons to Ukraine only worsens and prolongs the war. 

What is your responsibility in all this?  It is to keep yourself informed on what is happening on the planet and trust your ability to understand and form an intelligent opinion.  Read extensively on the wars that are currently taking place and find out what the issues are.  Use your common sense to form opinions and draw your own conclusions.  You do not need to rely on the opinions of so-called “experts” because chances are that the opinions expressed by these experts are the opposite of what common sense dictates.  The people currently in positions of authority making the most important decisions on the planet are the least qualified to do so which is why they must make whatever they do sound complicated.  Anyone with common sense can understand whatever is happening on the planet and make logical conclusions.  Your responsibility is to educate yourself and use your logic to understand war.  It is not too complicated:  war = bad; peace = good.  Anyone who tries to spin this any other way is outright lying to us and we have no obligation to listen to them.

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Let your voice be heard

One of major problem facing the anti-war movement is that anti-war voices are not being heard.  The aggressive narratives promoting war are the only ones being heard, mainly because such narratives are amplified by the mainstream media.  As a result, even though most ordinary people do not want war, we continue having wars because our voices are not heard.  Any anti-war voice is portrayed as naïve and unrealistic.  Aggression and violence are normalized while being anti-war is made to look like a radical, unusual idea.  The word “pacifist” is a dirty word in today’s politics.  The few voices that attempt to speak out against war are viciously attacked.  This state of affairs has become so outrageous that even though we are one miscalculation away from nuclear war, no one seems interested in talking about peace.  In the United Kingdom, it has become customary for anyone aspiring to become prime minister to unequivocally state that they are willing to use nuclear weapons.  Nuclear war seems almost inevitable at this point.   We remain silent because our world has been turned into a place where being aggressive is normal while being rational and cautious is abnormal.  Those who oppose war must start to speak out otherwise our planet will be destroyed by people who have lost the ability to think rationally.  Your responsibility, therefore, is to let your voice be heard.  Speak out against war and be silent no more.  If enough of us speak out, then we will eventually drown out the voices of the minority who are the loudest and most aggressive.  There are many ways to speak out; you only need to be creative and do what you’re comfortable with.  You could start a blog in which you talk about war or you could write an article or two about war in an existing blog.  You could write letters to your local politician expressing your views.  You could write letters to your local newspaper.  You could take it upon yourself to forward any interesting anti-war articles or videos to your social media groups. 

As you speak out, remember to raise awareness about the prospect of nuclear war we are currently facing.  We are in an extremely precarious position but the world doesn’t seem to notice.  We have unfortunately been lulled into a false sense of security by the myth of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), which is nothing more than a lie that keeps us passive.  We have been led to believe that nuclear war can never happen because no one would be insane enough to risk mutually assured destruction.  But we know for a fact that we have psychopaths in positions of power who would not hesitate to destroy the entire planet if pushed to a corner.  We know that many elites today are building underground bunkers in preparation for some sort of apocalypse.  Why do you think that is?  What do they know that the rest of us don’t?  We must understand that the ruling elites do not see themselves as one with the rest of us, which is why they would prepare underground bunkers to protect themselves while not caring about the rest of us.  Rather than do the sensible thing which is use their power, wealth and influence to avert such a catastrophe, what they are doing instead is preparing to burrow underground like the rats they are while the rest of us are destroyed.  This is the mentality these people have and they are the ones currently controlling the planet.  Going by their behaviour, I would say that nuclear war is imminent.   As long as the world remains silent under the false belief that nuclear war could never happen, we are simply sleepwalking towards our collective annihilation.  Therefore, make it a part of your speaking out efforts to talk about the potential for nuclear war and the need to ban nuclear weapons from the planet.