Aurelio Porfiri
The terrible news that we hear from Ukraine makes us confront war once again in Europe, something that we want to think of as a thing of the past. Nobody loves wars, because they bring destruction and death wherever they strike.
Yet we know very well how war is part of human life, it is something that we could never completely eliminate, even if we wanted to. A traditional saying goes: si vis pacem, para bellum. If you want peace, prepare for war.
This means that the hoped-for peace is not a state of being but more of a balance. This is why full-blown pacifism is not only harmful but also anti-human. It seems a good thing but it is not because it does not see the man for what he really is but for what it likes him to be.
The journalist Massimo Fini interviewed in archiviostorico.info gave this interesting interpretation on war: “The war, up to the last world conflict, allowed man to recover a hierarchy of values, favoring the essential things at the expense of the futile ones: when he can die at any moment, you don’t fight over stupid things. It is no coincidence that during the ‘traditional’ wars, as a study by Durkheim shows, neurosis and depression disappear. Another positive effect is that during a war, man discerns himself. Being such a fundamental event, war lays bare the value of a man: it is clear whether he is a coward, fearful or a daredevil etc… Of course, alongside these benefits, war produces destruction and suffering. However, it restores value to life: to the real one, not to the virtual life we lead today. These themes, however, were the subject of Elogio della guerra, a book I wrote in 1989.” Of course, even if it is recognized that there is some truth in what Massimo Fini says, we all hope that the present war will end soon and that it will bring as little suffering as possible to the affected populations.
However, he reminds us that what certain Christian pacifism that was taught to us in the 1970s is not true, which distorted the Latin phrase we quoted by saying that if you want peace you must prepare for peace. Unfortunately, peace is a balance and in our days this balance has been broken.
(Photo from AP)
Follow
