Ideas, Too, Go Out of Fashion, and So Should War

Just like clothes and styles, ideas too, go ‘out of fashion’. Some come back in cycles —the vintage that was once considered ‘old’ becomes #trending among newer generations that didn’t experience the downfalls of the past.

Exploiting children in mills and enslaving humans to be sold like cattle were once customary practices, but over time, they lost traction until they became obsolete and unthinkable. They were no longer ‘in fashion,’ even for those who were indifferent when these ideologies were the norm.

Or were these practices simply better disguised?

WAR, OUT OF STYLE?

War seemed ‘out of fashion’ for a while, at least the brutal military practice of it, especially for those living in politically stable countries. Even for me, coming from a region plagued by conflict and violence, the concept of major international war appeared relegated to political chambers and philosophy textbooks while growing up.

I wonder how this period of history will be referred to in future textbooks — «The brief peace of the United Nations?» Unable to prevent another world war, much like its predecessor, the League of Nations, failed to prevent WWII after WWI.

Yet today, as I wake up in the midst of my lifespan and among this generation of humans, it strikes me that we may have forgotten that the idea and practice of war should be outdated, even obsolete. The ‘why’ seems be evident, but it clearly isn’t — inequality, exploitation, economic and environmental havoc, humanitarian crises, manslaughter.

Ultimately, the reason echoes why the Cold War remained cold, it’s MAD —Mutual Assured Destruction.

THE IDEOLOGICAL COMEBACK

Even though some ideas resurface, like high-waist jeans or 2000s’ hairstyles, it’s never in the same river. The world and people that experience them are different, changed exponentially. Logic suggests the outcome will not be the same, for better or worse.

Our world is just too interdependent nowadays to afford turning a blind eye to war’s comeback. Wherever in the globe there is war, the ripples travel by fiber optics.

The international markets are eventually flooded by the tides of war, and its scent lingers in the very same oxygen we all breathe on this planet. Our Earth, our finite home.

I’m curious to see how it will all end, as I’m sure were the people fighting in the 1900s. It seems to me that the generation in power —mostly born as products of the global wars that marked the last century from beginning to end, but more importantly, out of the repeated achievement of peace and what was sacrificed in its honor— should understand better than anyone why these ideas are now ‘out of fashion.’

Going back to ethno-religious hatred and polarization will not get us anywhere worth going.

And while I’m glad to witness that upcoming generations appear committed to mobilizing for action and becoming more inclusive, it is yet questioned if they —or rather, we— are willing to work as hard and persistently as needed to bring about meaningful change.

WAR, OUR HUMAN NATURE?

Being born and raised in Medellin, my heritage is intertwined with war. So, I cannot help but consider it foolish of me to contemplate whether the idea of it is ‘in or out of style,’ much like fashion is a luxury that those without basic necessities cannot afford. But some believe war is no idea at all, and rather, see it as an intrinsic part of our very human nature.

So would be peace, then.

As I wrote this piece from my garden on a peaceful Sunday evening, my grandmother was on her deathbed, next to her garden, miles away, on another continent, peacefully leaving the world behind, knowing she always chose peace. She was born in 1920. My father told me that was called the “death of the righteous”—serene, in her own bed, surrounded by her people.

Peace and not war, idea or not, in fashion or out; that is a choice we both make and endorse every day of our lives.

Until we too, leave this world behind. But our heritage will remain on earth.