“We both want the same thing. We both want the same peace... You and I are no different. We’re both working for our own justice. The justice I have dealt upon [your people], is exactly the same as what you’re trying to deal upon me. Everyone feels the same pain of loss—we both know that pain. You are working for your justice, and I for mine. We are just ordinary people driven to revenge in the name of justice. But if revenge is called justice, then that justice breeds yet more revenge, and becomes a chain of hatred. “
“Living within it, aware of the past, predicting the future—that is what it means to know history. We cannot help but know that people cannot understand each other.”
“Eventually, time will pass and the pain will heal. Eventually, checkmate’s power will weaken and people will begin fighting again.”
—“Nagato”, from Naruto Shippuden
Since hearing this quote, and since reading this fortune, I have thought long and hard about the implications of developing true, unwavering peace among people for as long as could be.
I struggle with this idea:
What, exactly, does it truly mean to know history?
Is history something we can understand on an intuitive level through reading and studying it? Is it something that can be brought to life and imprinted in our minds and our hearts with a film?
Or is it, I worry, something that can only be grasped by a physical experience?
“We cannot help but know that people cannot understand each other.”
These words tear at my thoughts, because I realize I often feel this way despite the boundless support I receive from others—not to mention my efforts to understand others and support them in turn.
My fear is that for people to understand each other intuitively and fully exist without conflict, they must have also suffered together.
It sounds horrible and barbaric, but stop to think about it for a second:
One of the most common practices for people when joining clubs or teams, or anything of that nature, is to suffer together. They are most often put through brutal tests and training before being allowed to join with the others, by which time they are exhausted and never again wish to experience such a struggle again.
At martial arts schools such as one I trained at throughout my childhood and early teens, we were taught to learn to withstand physical pain without retaliation, helping us learn to build our strength, character, and self-control.
I use these ideas to discuss failure and preparation for responsibility, because in my eyes, they fall in line with the same ideas.
“Everyone feels the same pain of loss—we all know that pain.”
Failure, I believe, is a stepping stone for growth. In fact, I think it is more effective than success in terms of achieving this, because of the suffering that we must go through to understand, analyze, and reevaluate our actions after we have failed.
“You are working for your justice, and I for mine. We are just ordinary people driven to revenge in the name of justice.”
History has been a chronicle of failure within the world. Civilizations have risen and fallen. People believing they were accomplishing peace and justice for their people did so at the cost of many lives, hoping that it would be the necessary price to pay for peace to be established.
“We’re both working for our own justice. The justice I have dealt upon [your people], is exactly the same as what you’re trying to deal upon me.”
Each side has believed themselves the benevolent ones, only focused on protecting their personal interests and the ones dear to themselves at whatever cost.
Time and time again, the power dynamic has shifted hands and then peace for a select few is able to survive for a few generations.
Time and time again, the ideas of the necessary values and goals that should be upheld will change.
I consider the fortune cookie fortune from this perspective:
If we are able to somehow experience or understand all of the failure in the world, then given enough time, would we then be able to understand and build true peace among all people?
“Living within it, aware of the past, predicting the future—that is what it means to know history.”
If I could make an assumption, then I would say that given enough time living, one would be able to experience and sort out every conflict until they were absolutely exhausted.
However, humans are mortal creatures. Unfortunately, we do not live forever, and so while our ideas may live on through paper and practice, they will not necessarily carry to the next generation after we are gone. Our lifelong gathered wealth of knowledge, experience, and most importantly understanding die with us.
“Eventually, time will pass and the pain will heal. Eventually, checkmate’s power will weaken and people will begin fighting again.”
I spoke of responsibility under the context that peace is our responsibility to achieve through failure.
The pain does not heal with the generation that died with it, but the generation who grew up fearing this pain, and who understood it indirectly. If they had not understood it on an intuitive level, then the same mistakes would not repeat themselves.
Since they do repeat themselves, I believe it is also safe to assume that this pain has healed through the time passed between generations. As new powers with different goals and ideas take hold, the mindset of the people is then wheeled in that direction, only to be steered another way with the next generation who will fight to achieve it at any cost.
History, it seems, is doing donuts in its own parking lot.
