the chapter "How To Tell A True War Story" got me thinking a little. instead of merely focusing on how to relate the book to myself, I'll relate it to bigger-picture things. like, is there a "just war"? do they exist? if so, how? personally, I can't ever find a good base to build an argument for a "just war". sure, the church has guidelines, but it's sort of a "yeah, when pigs fly we'll have a 'just war'" (although we did have that H1N1 epidemic...). though O'Brien never really makes an explicit argument against the war, he never finds morality in it. consequently, he never finds morality in any war story that gets told thereafter:
"A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If a story seems moral, do not believe it."
(p. 65)
the other thing that this quote reminds me of is a lyric of a favorite song of mine that goes "the best part of "believe" is the "lie". I think that this especially rings true in this instance. O'Brien tells us that there is no morality in the war stories. if this is so, wouldn't it be the same to say there is no morality in the war itself? I think so.
check
ReplyDelete