Quote:
|
Quote by: phoenix_fire I think that the advent of war forces people to think about their own mortality. The majority of people wish at some point to find love and maybe even marry. Under peaceful circumstances where we and our opposite sex contemporaries expect to live to the age of eighty or so, the idea of seeking out that special someone is easily backburnered in favor of educational and career pursuits. We believe we have plenty of time to worry about it later. Those already in relationships have a tendency toward complacency in believing they and their partner will be around a good long time. War, however, reminds us that our longevity is not guaranteed. Love is considered an ultimate goal and defining part of life and many become aware that they may die before experiencing it in that special exclusive way. We learn to value those close to us because in short order we may not see them again this side of eternity. We take chances with the ones we are secretly attracted to because our thinking has gone beyond the mundane, day-to-day rut we customarily inhabit and focuses on the long-term.
In short, we become far more philosophical.
In some, this manifests in a pleasure-seeking mentality that can culminate in the "free love" reaction. Because of the loosening of restrictions of culture in the sixties, this became far more common than in previous war eras. In others, this manifests in the strengthening of devotion to one person and a renewal of love. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder. |
I very much appreciate your comments about what WWII did to us mentally and emotionally. I know people rushed to get married and that following the war there were many divorces, and this was the beginning of tearing apart the fabric of our nation. I feel very sad about our lost family way of life, and transformation into such a materialistic, self centered society, that it seems futile to speak of how cold and deadly this is.
I keep a book near me, "We Had Everything But Money", to remind me of the Depression years when all most people had was each other. How different the 1970 recession was, when for real economic reasons many lost everything, only this time, we blamed the poor for our economic troubles, instead of the cause of the recession. Going from a time when home and family was the center of people lives, to being separated by war, must have been a terrible shock to the psychi. Today, when home and family is not the center of the people's lives, I think it easier to go war. Especially the young men, expressing delight with driving tanks and flying planes, as though war were another form of Disneyland entertainment concern me. Are they killing people with as much detachment from the reality of war? I am frightened for the world, when I look at US today.