In this I will be discussing ideas touched upon in the movie Wonder Woman and limiting any specific events, consider this your very minor spoiler warning.

While I normally despise when people decide to intersperse political issues and pop culture, such as calling politicians Harry Potter villains no matter who it is.

What pop culture and entertainment can do however, is take a humanizing look at a number of issues and ideas that normally take place in academic papers and think tank forums. I was struck with one of these while watching Wonder Woman.

First, I believe that the film is amazing, I am highly impressed by it for a number of reasons from cinematography to how the movie handles sensitive issues. What really struck me is what became one of the main ideas of the film: the nature of humanity and why we fight.

In the film, we are constantly faced with horrific violence no matter how innocent the victims are. People prove themselves to be horrific to each other and who is a good guy is oftentimes ambiguous, and no matter how much people want peace and paradise, violence always returns.

Thus comes a lesson best summed up in a Latin saying: sis vi pacem, para bellum; if you want peace, prepare for war.

No matter how much we want to be all over sunshine and daisies, that is not practical. No matter how many people you convince to be peaceful, there will always be some waiting to exploit and bring violence, without caring that you're a pacifist or there is a "no violence allowed here" sign on the door. Quite simply, no matter what a pop star may say, hugs and being caring would not have stopped Adolf Hitler and Emperor Hirohito.

Today we face many of the same issues. While we have suffering, we do not suffer the near daily horrors faced in places such as Iraq or Mindanao in the Philippines. George Orwell put it best when he stated, "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." As long as there are people who would do violence on us, we must be prepared to do violence in return, as without at least those who guard those who cannot protect themselves, we will only have suffering.

But one of the most important things to keep in mind is why we fight. As horrific as we can be to each other, we are also capable of greatness. The response to attacks is often heartwarming in the face of suffering; in Manchester the community rallied to find missing and to provide shelter and transportation for victims. We have created works of art and gone to space. But perhaps the greatest example is a bit of advice I read on how to prepare for boot camp(to the author of that post on Quora, I can't find it now but it was awesome) if you want to join the armed forces. How? For those in the United States, eat a good burger go attend some festivals and celebrations, take in all of the good in people living. And when you are in your darkest moments, recall those times, they will be what carries you through. We not only fight for the good times, but to those at home who can't protect themselves, and those who those who fight couldn't save:

For those men, women and children who were gunned down while on a bus on their way to visit a monastery.

For the 90 dead, and 400 injured in bomb blast and Kabul, Afghanistan, killing mothers and fathers, journalists and police, natives and foreigners.

And for those concert goers and parents, too many of whom taken far too early.

It is J.R.R. Tolkien's character Sam in the Lord of the Rings who best puts why we fight when he states:

"... there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for."