War is Caused by Misunderstanding

People should realize that war is "part of human society" no matter mythic or sensory; it is first and foremost death and "gross human cruelty"(Hedges 26, 23). Chris Hedges separates mythic reality and sensory reality, in his essay "War is A Force that Gives Us Meaning," explaining that "in mythic war we imbue events with meanings they do not have" and "in sensory reality we see events for what they are" (21). In one of this year films "Letters from Iwo Jima" directed by Clint Eastwood, the sensory reality of World War II is shown through the perspective of Japanese Soldiers that had to guard the island Iwo Jima till the American troops completely destroyed each and every one of them. Governments paint an illusion and propagandized the mythic war for their citizens in order to win a war yet any kind of war is contradictory to the society's desires which, according to Gilbert's essay "Reporting Live from Tomorrow," are reached by transmission of the false beliefs such as where "we must believe that children and money bring happiness, regardless of whether such [things] are true or not"; in this case false beliefs add up to a good outcome for the society, improving its economy and overall population (222). The propaganda of war in a country is reached by same transmission of false beliefs such as ethnic stereotypes yet every war leads to some amount of destruction to the society. However, it is important to recognize that although there are wars that are fought simply out of stupidity and cruelty of the government; some wars, as cruel as they are, are might be fought for something more. But no matter what is the reason for a conflict and no matter how much there is of misunderstanding between the two sides, people should realize that all of us are human in a war that brings death, and that we are all more alike than different although we spent so much time building the wall that separates us.

Mythic war is a lie, a false belief that contradicts any intellectual thinking. We go to war to die - that is the crude reality or the "sensory war." On one hand the mythic war "allows us to make sense of mayhem and violent death," on the other it paints an appealing illusion for the people. The belief of being better, different, and more right than the enemy country goes good along with Gilbert's theory that "we don't always see ourselves as superior, but we almost always see ourselves as unique" (229).