Since Enlightenment, people began using rationality and reasoning to explain the unknown or challenge existing systems. Science prospered when many talents used different methods to explore the nature and discover a variety of useful tools that made people’s lives convenient. It was obviously pointing to a good direction. However, when people realized that they could even use it against one another and benefit from it, they focused on how to take away others’ lives in an efficient way. For example, chemical weapon was first used during World War I, killing more than thousands of people and creating a terrifying psychological impact on soldiers. It was not the only time. Chemical weapons have been used recently in Syria as well. While people are blaming that the overuse of technologies and rationality leads to the loss of humanity, the ambiguity between rightness and wrongness shows that the critique itself is just another demonstration of rationality.
First of all, according to ABC News, a chemical attack in Syria was reported on April 4, 2017. It is shock to see how children started losing breath and died in a video. Many people lost their family and even their lives due to the terrifying order given by the President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Assad’s government denied this responsibility, but still many people believed he gave out this order, killing more than seventy Syrian citizens. Barbara Starr and Jeremy Diamond from CNN Politics reported that “The United States launched a military strike Thursday on a Syrian government airbase in response to a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians earlier in the week.” Trump’s order aims to prevent the chemical weapon attack from happening again and signifies that U.S will get involved in this affair more explicitly. Nevertheless, it can intensify the situation which becomes more complicated. Within this dynamic atmosphere, Syria is a checkerboard with the involvement of many nations pursuing powers and trying to take advantages over others without taking consideration into the Syrian citizens who are innocent. Wars have happened throughout history in the world with a variety of forms.
People handle conflicts in various ways when there is a disagreement of interests between two parties. In some extreme conditions, people would kill opponents to strengthen their positions and authority. Wars are commonly used when it is a national conflict. During World War I, there was a big conflict between the Allies and the Central Power. With the advance of technologies, the form of war changed. For example, tanks, machine guns, and chemical weapons were introduced in a way that had not been used before. They were all the products of the use of science that was highly logical. As mentioned before, people started rationalize their surroundings and then took steps further and further to form different systems and methods to help them get a better understanding of the nature. After they have sufficient knowledge about it, they began to think if they could create something artificial. When creativity and rationality were combined and applied to war, lives were taken easily. High casualties and mortalities indicated not only the ability of human being to create lethal weapons, but also the indifference of numerous deaths that one party might only concern how many enemies they could kill, bring up an issue that the overuse of rationality objectified human beings and led to the loss of emotional attachment toward other people.
While wars were considered as a tool to gain benefits by showing dominance and authorities, Dadaism brought up a message to break the old traditions, rationality, social norms as well as any other systems. Tristan Tzara, the author of Dada Manifesto, states that “abolition of logic, dance of all those impotent to create: DADA” (652). This quote shows that people should get rid of logics and former structures which were perceptions formed by themselves. These things were not appearing naturally. Human beings have existed for many years and improving themselves with the passage of time. Structures and systems formed when ancestors realized that they were helpful to manage a group of people and relations with each other. Eventually, more structures and connections among people formed. People would not pay much attention to why those structures and systems existed until Enlightenment when they started to question, break the old one, and then form another one with rationality. In other words, community played an important role on the formation of logics and systems which were not unchangeable, such as French Revolution in which the system of monarchy and divine right from God was overthrown, and new system was constructed that emphasized the rights of citizens. However, it did not mean that the previous system was unreasonable because it also had its own path of evolution with reasons that were not accepted by revolutionists. There was no absolute right or wrong system, but when people had certain needs that could not be satisfied, they would try to find solution, and if the solution would hurt someone else, they might rationalize their reasons to justify their actions which caused harm to others. Yet, as long as they were able to give solid proof, their actions were justified.
To sum up, war is a detrimental event that creates huge impacts on people to an extent that one side dehumanizes and even brings more harm toward the other one. However, if there is no unchangeable rule to clarify the rightness and wrongness, wars cannot be absolutely considered as a wrong thing, even if it objectifies and categorizes different people.
Work cited
“Father Grieves for Baby Twins Killed in Syrian Gas Massacre.” ABC News. N.p., 05 Apr. 2017. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.
Starr, Barbara, and Jeremy Diamond. “Trump Launches Military Strike against Syria.” CNN. Cable News Network, 07 Apr. 2017. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.
Tzara, Tristan. “Dada Manifesto 1918.” The Norton Anthology World Literature. 3rd ed. Vol. F. New York: W. W. Norton &, n.d. N. pag. Print.