When Pulling the Trigger is the Only Way

Since the beginning of written history, up to one billion people have been killed in wars with 231 million lives taken solely in the twentieth century. Humans prize fighting. There is no other plausible explanation why out of 3400 years, only 268 have been peaceful. In the 21st century, the most tranquil century in the written history, there hasn’t been a single day of peace. Different military conflicts rage throughout the world with an annual turnover of half a million deaths.

People are killing people in the name of a country, ideology or religion. Most of them, doing what they are told to do by the people in power without having a clear picture for what, who or why they are pulling the trigger. The reason for such animalistic, inhumane action. There are no easy answers to such questions. To ask them might be seen as foolish or even dangerous. You do what you are told to do, no questions being asked. Dared being asked. Full stop. But precisely because of ‘you do what you are told to do’, it’s essential to question the ambitions of the people in power. To have a ‘good’ reason for pulling the trigger in the name of a country for example.

Cambridge dictionary explains the word country as ‘an area of land that has its own government, army, etc.:’ But to fight for an area of land or a government might read as a delusion rather than a human response to a situation where a military intervention is the only solution. It’s important to understand that a country is not an area of land per se but the people with a certain culture and thus identity who live in that area of land. Consider how likely the area of land is prone to change in the long or short term of history. Think about how many times certain countries have changed the size of their territory throughout the last century. How many people have died fighting for an area of land that is currently a part of another country. The country they had fought against for instance. How many of them truly died for their country and not for the personal ambition of a single person?

A condo (condominium) serves as a good-theoretical example. Imagine a country as an apartment. The apartment surrounded by other apartments. These apartments differ in shape and size. Each apartment has its own culture and unique identity. On the stairwell the residents from the apartments meet, interact and cooperate. With some they are more familiar than with the others. There are friendships and hatreds. Sometimes there are conflicts between the residents of the same apartment. At times apartments seize other apartments. Seized apartments fight the occupants. There is not a single day of peace in the condo despite most of its residents wishing to live peacefully and detesting fighting. But there are those who like it. Imagine if a neighbouring apartment decides to invade yours, what do you do? You have three options: flight-fight-or-freeze. Let’s assume you choose to fight. What do you do next? Lock the door, hide your family in the safest corner of the apartment and arm everyone capable of fighting. In other words you are preparing to defend, fight and kill if necessary. Not because you want to but because the neighbouring apartment has left no choice for you. By choosing to stand and defend your physical space, your way of life and your family from someone who threatens to destroy all of it, you have a justified reason to pull the trigger in the name of your apartment.

The current military conflict in Ukraine is a beneficial-real-life example, presenting the difference in the perspective of the invaded and the invading country: Ukraine and Russia. For Ukrainians it’s not their land in danger per se but their existence. Their culture and identity. That’s why so many of them took-up arms or in any other way are helping to fight the invaders. There is a reason and a compelling argument behind their choice. A voluntary act to defend Ukraine at any personal cost. For Russians, there is no justification or argument except mere sadness for those who have been sentenced by an ill-decision of a single person to a worthless death. Their deaths do no good for Russia as the people in Russia, its culture and identity are suffering from this war immensely. In the eyes of the world Russian soldiers are seen as idiots — fighting to liberate Ukraine from fictional Kyiv’s regime — who submit to the orders without having a clear understanding for what, who and why their lives are sacrificed. Thus turning them into war criminals and ‘heroes’ who no one will remember.

Russo-Ukrainian war is the most recent but not the only one. If you look back in history, you will find many stories about people sacrificing their lives for the independence of a country from oppression and annihilation. Sacrificing their loved ones and entire cities for the coming generations to have an area of land where they could speak their language, nurture their culture and thus identity freely. The cost most of us tend to forget and allow the dust to cover the history books. The cost of a decision to pull the trigger in the name of a country. The cost of a few seeing tomorrow.

Although we are in the most peaceful century in the written history, fighting goes on between countries, gangs and political parties. It’s happening throughout the globe despite the efforts to elevate human consciousness above the animalistic ambition and submission to the propaganda of a well-crafted speeches and governmental machinery designed to put in jail everyone who dares to say no. Violence and committed atrocities do not make countries great neither those fighting for them allegedly.

If there is a way to stop violence around the world, it begins with a conscious understanding for what, who and why a person is willing to pull the trigger. What reasoning is behind such action that will require potential if not necessary killing and destruction. At times there is no other way. Especially if you are attacked by a country whose people are afraid to say a word differing from the official narrative. Sometimes taking-up arms is the only way. Once hit back the bully thinks twice. Not everyone prizes fighting as was said at the beginning but unfortunately fighting is the only way to stop those who like it.