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Lest We Forget
Remembering the past is what this post is about and on this November 11, 2023, I once again find myself thinking about wars past, wars present, and sadly, the wars to come. This year, in particular, there are two high profile wars going, one in Ukraine, and the other in Israel. It’s hard to read about, or to watch, but over the years, I’ve come to believe that we need to reflect on the horrors of war because we need to understand that it is something dreadful; something to be avoided at all costs; something to be engaged in only as a last resort. And when all else fails, to engage in with the understanding that it is awful and horrible that we may find an end as quickly as possible.
There’s an episode from the original Star Trek series called, “A Taste Of Armageddon.” In that episode, Kirk, and his team, beam down to the planet Eminiar VII, a planet that is supposedly at war. Except that there are no bombs, no missiles, and no bullets. What they encounter is a war fought by computers, a prescient metaphor for today’s remote-controlled drones and cyber warfare. Computers fight the war and those people who have been killed in the conflict willingly report to disintegration booths to be cleanly disposed of. This war has been going on for ages, but because it is so clean and tidy, people have forgotten about the horrors of war, and so the war persists.
