Do You Know Who You're Dying For?

Well, let me start by saying that having a blog that your friends know about makes it harder to talk shit about them. I need to stop advertising, I need that anonymity. I'm just snitching on myself damnit! But then again, maybe we both need to read this.

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein

Anyway, so a friend and I were randomly discussing WWIII. I do hold it in my chest cavity, somewhere, that the world is headed towards a third World War. Eventually. It just seems inevitable. Wars just...are.

So my friend's Palestinian. You know there's the "issue" between Israel and Palestine right now--and yes I know "issue" is a vast, vast understatement. Only if "issue" means "all out senseless bloodshed". My friend is Palestinian and while this bloodshed is something I don't think I'll ever hope to understand, me and her talk about it sometimes. I mean, it's her home country & the country of her parents, how could it not wiggle into conversation? How could she not be on the side of her homeland? How could she not think of it. I understand all of this.

Tonight though she said something odd, to the effect of wanting to be a martyr for her country. I blink numbly at this and ask her why. She says she can't explain it, wanting to die for God and her country.

Now...not only do I draw the line at "God" but I draw the line at senseless destruction and violence. MARTYRDOM?

Not much time with much to do, look ahead and walk on through; no one's taking sides this time--it's you. -- "Summerland", King's X

Getting my delicate atheist sensibilities aside, I have never seen the "goodness" in martyrdom. It's a stupid act. I told her thinking like was what gets people killed--and it is. I honestly think so! Religion doesn't start all wars but it does start them. Martyrdom. Who are you dying for? Who believes in a God that wants them to die? That your eternal reward--after death--is? I don't actually care how devout or how devout you think you are, that is senseless.

I didn't want to talk about it anymore. It actually sort of frightened me that dreams of martyrdom had infected her thoughts. It frightens me when anyone ups and says they want to die for their god. It also pisses me off a little but it scared me more than anything. I suppose we all want to live and die for what you believe for...but haven't enough people been lost in this conflict, this war? Suicide bombers, holy missions...it all frightens me. I don't want anymore people to die for this.

It's play time but it's far to late...what you gonna give, is not enough, it's not enough for me. --"Wicked As It Seems", Keith Richards

What are you dying for? Do you know what you're dying for? That takes... a certainty and conviction I really don't have, I think. I'm not particularly afraid to die, but I'm not dying for something that I can't even be sure is there. Pie in the sky happiness. Dying for my country? But that's what soldiers do...not young girls wanting to go to medical school...isn't it?

Is she braver than I so I call her foolish? Or is she brave because she's foolish...is it so foolish? Is it my place to inform her that God, it doesn't exist, so what are you dying for?

It really is hard to explain...

_{Don't ask about my song selection.}