War in the Modern World

War has fascinated the minds of the greats throughout history. Its concepts and understandings have been passed on to us through the few surviving works of those, whose lives were touched by war, in an ancient archive. Some saw war as an ordinary, inevitable phenomenon that has a place among natural order of human lives (Jacob Walter), while others interpreted it as devastating and terrible deviation from the natural order of things (W.T. Sherman). Over the course of our archival readings we have learned of war through the records from the Trojans in their leather sandals (Hector), the horsemen of Sherman's brigades, the WWI soldiers with their new gas shells and machine guns, and eventually through the eyes …show more content…

Perhaps people's need for war arises from its very evil nature in hopes of creating something good—we need it, perhaps, to simply remind us that we are human. Simply observing the matters, I notice that, perhaps, due to complexity of humans, in war, some cease to exist as human beings turning instead to their barbaric instincts in an attempt to stay sane, while others react differently. They try to interpret the situation around them, clear their feelings and justify their actions. They also put their experiences to writing, which become building blocks for the archive. The most sincere and open ones end up among those that touch its readers in the most profound way. Inevitably, their goal is to teach the reader, to show him what happens when humans turn to animals, bring him closer to the world he would otherwise not likely to see so that he would not forget of his humanity, before he himself has to experience it through war, which, in accordance with the archive, is not unlikely. Maybe in that lies the main lesson we can take from our observations. After all, throughout the span of the archival history we have witnessed different people reflect on their respective war experiences, however, many of them seemed to be centered on the same core. Be that the portrayal of war as horrendous disasters for human character, a source of much despair and loss (Jarhead), or on the contrary, a birthplace of heroes and