All such questions are entitled to answers. For the purpose of this article, I shall explain and elaborate on mine. Perhaps one of the best introductions on the topic of war I have ever heard is this: “Since the dawn of humankind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything, from God, to justice, to simple, psychotic rage.” Video game aficionados would recognise this as part of the introductory sequence to Fallout 3, and in exactly 34 words it precisely describes how war and the human frame of mind are intertwined together. In humanity’s violent history, wars have been waged over a myriad of reasons, reasons which were not always ethical, as the above-mentioned quotation implies. Indeed, despite the fact that war, in its very nature, is evil, there were several conflicts which would be considered as "just’. So, what could possibly make conflict A just and conflict B not so?

The answer is simpler than one might think; when a nation has exhausted all other possibilities of reconciliation with an aggressor, when imperative values and ideas are being undermined and violence is the only way to achieve peace through the targeting of military personnel are being targeted is a war just. Upon reading these statements, one realizes that it is rarely so when it comes to bloodshed. Take, for example, the nastiest, most destructive conflict of the 20th Century, the Second World War. Nazi Germany was waging a war on the rest of Europe which was far from being just; it was a military campaign fuelled by hatred and bigotry. The very same war also set the stage for the most horrific act of war in the history of mankind: the bombing of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The war had practically ended, and the nuclear bombs claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent women, men and children. That is not a just war. That is not fighting for the conservation of your nation; that is not fighting to defend your country’s ideas, that is simply organised murder.

It is somewhat heartening to see that in modern times, conflict across the globe has somewhat diminished. Humanity still has a very long way to go in order to achieve world peace, however; as we speak, blood is being shed in places such as Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. If only warring nations spent their military budget on financing education instead… now that would be a world we could all live in.

The post Can War Ever Be Justified? appeared first on The Third Eye.

Truth be told, I sincerely think that the term “class warfare” is misleading. Upon seeing the word "warfare’, one would think that both of the classes mentioned above have an equal amount of power to be used for the achievement of their goals. Sadly, reality is very different. Today, it is very clear that only those with the money and the power have a say in this world whilst the common worker is left to the mercy of the wealthy capitalist’s boot. Think about it: modern society is not the pretty picture it is painted to be in the media (media mostly owned by wealthy businessmen, obviously). You are only allowed to vote once every four or five years. This means that you, as one of the many cogs in the one big machine that is society, are only allowed to decide who is going to shape the future of your country once every five years.

Furthermore, your choice of representatives is limited to members who normally pertain to the higher echelons of society – doctors, lawyers and other politicians with high paying jobs who have no particular interest whatsoever in your well-being. I do not wish to generalise and put every single politician in the history of democracy into one category; after all, there have been political representatives who were of great service to their countries. The problem with the system is that these men and women who have been exemplary in their terms of office are few and far in between, and that there are way too many politicians who are just in it for the money.

This is where the problems begin. Nothing good can come out of mixing greedy politicians with businesses who run the entire economical infrastructure of the country. This is capitalism’s greatest flaw: if you allow corporations and business to grow to the point where they can pay off anyone in power, the system is going to crash. These corporations are able to obliterate any modicum of power workers’ unions have, and they will basically be able to run the country and use the politicians as puppets. As the character V from the popular film V for Vendetta would put it, “the vox populi (voice of the people) is vacant, now vanished”. Sure, we may get a vote; sure, we do choose who our representatives are; but what choice is there really when corruption and greed are the names of the business? It has happened time and time again; a dirty oil company or an arms manufacturer or a food chain with less than noble intentions pays off a politician, said politician turns a blind eye and before you know it, they’re in control. It’s like a twisted version of a fairytale which is repeated over and over, and it never will quite end unless the system is changed.

Despite all this, however, there is one thing in favour for those of us pertaining to the working class; we have strength in numbers. We are many, and they are few. The fighting in our society shouldn’t be against people of different religions or different ethnicities, but against people who want to be elitists and want to exclude everyone from the bounties of the world except for themselves.

The post The Reality of Class Warfare appeared first on The Third Eye.