Recently, a friend asked me why I focus on things in life that get me so worked up. His logic is, why make yourself more and more upset by keeping track of the dark things going on in the world, and why take such hard classes, covering topics such as terrorism, death, and genocide, if it is only bound to make you upset. At first, I had a very hard time answering his question. But all at once, the answer hit me like a ton of bricks.
In high school, I heard the phrase on at least more than one occasion from my history teachers "those who forget history are destined to repeat it." That itself is the answer. The history of mankind is a bloody mess strewn across thousands of years. Useless wars, savage torturing and killing, and genocides of all sorts plague mankind. We have a surprising aptitude to commit brutal violence against our fellow men and women, and the body counts of history are all the proof that one needs to prove that statement. But, to answer the question my friend had for me, there is the reason why I study the things I study, why I take the classes I take, and why I make sure that I am worked up, fired up, and upset over every single horrific, unjust, and heartbreaking event that happens in our world today.
The reason why we as a species find ourselves trapped in this endless loop of violence and horror is simply the fact that, over the years, there have been far too many people who have simply decided that, "well, if it doesn't effect me then it isn't my problem." I call false on such statements. We should all be appalled and embarrassed at the violence and horrors that we as a species can inflict upon each other. The reason why violence keeps happening is because people do not care enough to know about it, do not care enough to study it and feel appalled at it, and therefore have no way to recognize it before it happens again.
This in and of itself is a simple concept. If you pay attention to when it rains, and study the weather, then eventually, you are going to be able to recognize when it is about to rain. To make it even simpler than that, if you put your hand on a stove and realize it is hot and it hurts, then you are going to do everything you can to make sure that you do not put your hot hand on the stove ever again. The same goes for history, and even for any number of distressing events we may witness in the world today. If we simply study them, take just a few minutes out of our day and read the newspaper, or research violence that is occurring in the world, or even simply acknowledge the problems that plague the world, then eventually, we as a species will be able to recognize that a horrific event is about to take place, and will be able to stop it before it happens.
This is my hope: that we as whole will one day drop down our blinders of ignorance and be able to realize that the world that we live in is a terrible, violent place, all of our own making. And on that day, if we can finally realize that it is up to us to change it for the better as one, then we will finally be able to break the violent cycle our world so constantly exists in.
