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What is the legacy of World War One and World War Two? A load of young men missed out on a chance on life, all because the governments of the world couldn't agree on something, and in many other cases because a dickhead thought he could invade or bomb a certain country. Now you have all these news companies looking to get clicks and sails out of World War Three possibilities, I'm here to say that as an insignificant individual who is only 20 years old, I've had enough. This is an extension almost of a piece I wrote on Christmas day last year if all of you want to go seek it out.
War is meaningless, mindless and endless, live with the killing, or don't live at all. I refuse to remove myself from this opinion, and if you tell me to move, I am planting myself firmly like a tree, because all war is, it's the deprivation of life. What is life? It's the only thing we as humans have in common completely, and the only people who don't share that with us, they don't share it because they've unfortunately died.
When you are dead, that is it! Life is a cruel mistress but bring war into the mix, I obviously cannot speak from experience of course but having seen one movie, I feel connected enough to talk at length. Testament Of Youth was a movie I was interested in seeing, and if you ever want to see first and foremost, a great movie then I highly recommend it. But after seeing it, that really hammered home my view on war as a whole.
Life is such a precious thing, and we see movies and TV shows and we play games in which characters die and it's something that is just dismissed immediately since they just respawn, or acknowledged for the wrong reasons. Yes it's fictional of course, I get that but I think a lot, the character in a movie or TV show would have been born in that fictional world and led down a path of life before knowing that it would end so quickly.
I don't want to sound insensitive here, but I normally get a bit more sad for someone who died at a much younger age as appose to someone who led a full life. If I hear that someone passed away at a good age, I obviously feel for their family and friends but in a way, they must surely have led a long, fulfilling life and what matters is the legacy they left in their wake. Younger people dying though do really get to me.
I never spoke about this but in July of 2015, an F1 driver by the name of Jules Bianchi passed away only two weeks short of his 26th birthday, and I've never gotten over it. I followed Jules' career since the latter part of 2009 and I was certain that Jules would have gone on to be a champion in Formula One, I always said that it wasn't a matter of if, but when Jules would have been a Formula One world champion.
It was so heart wrenching, mainly because I saw this fine young man and a rare example of someone in the world of sport who was pretty much universally beloved, and for me at least to have seen interviews with him and also be present at the location where he won his first race in GP2 (F1's feeder series) and for it to go from that to now sitting here knowing that he's no longer with us, it's overwhelming. I saw Jules Bianchi as a person who I knew would go on to do great things, and not as someone who would end up no longer with us.
The same thing over the weekend, Robert Godwin was murdered on a live stream by someone who I won't name because he doesn't deserve it and to put it bluntly, I am glad that this monster is dead! I will not mince my words there. But Robert Godwin was 74 years old and whilst he lived a very long and full life, he was taken before his time and it's an awful thing to have to go through, my well wishes are extended out to his family.
This is why I won't go to war, the killing. I get that we have our own armies right now with people who serve for us who have volunteered, but at what cost? I whole heartedly respect anyone who decides to serve our country, they know fine well that they could die, and they're okay with that, I can't not respect a person who makes that decision, but I just couldn't. The only reason I bring this up is because in the first two World Wars, we had the governments shoving it down the throats on young men that there is nobility and honour that comes with fighting for your country.
You'd be shipped away to France or Italy, and you as a British soldier will one day encounter a German one, and in that moment, that soldier is boiled down to a target and that you have to kill them. Both men have families back home, and you're tasked with killing them and they're tasked with killing you, which is why I love the truce of 1914 so much because it didn't boil down any of them to just things to kill, it emphasised their humanity.
Now I love GTA and how I know the media will portray me as a hypocrite since those sad bastards love to hammer home how GTA is all bad and it makes everyone kill, so anyway despite my love for Grand Theft Auto, I couldn't bring myself to kill anyone in real life, I just wouldn't want to. Life is over for someone so quickly and we don't know what's next, we have to all make the most of the time we have because life can be cruel to so many of us.
I heard this quote, it was said in the Logan movie but is actually from an old western genre film that is played within Logan, I don't know its name but the quote goes as follows, "There's no living with a killing. There's no going back from it. Right or wrong, it's a brand, a brand that sticks." and it is very true. If you kill someone, you deprive them of a life but in war, it seems you won't have a choice, so that's why I won't go to war.
But it doesn't end there, we haven't had a world war since 1945 and it hasn't impacted our way of life. So I say this and ask you to think about it, if World War Three were to happen, how would it change our way of living? I fear this may come across as selfish but bare with, it can apply to whatever concerns you too. Being a motorsport fan, there was never any motorsport that ran throughout the years during both world wars, since all the manufacturing was shifted to creating planes, vehicles and weaponry for the troops.
This may be absurd, but speaking to my friend Nadine earlier (Who is the reason why I am writing this article, she suggested I do so) and I came to the conclusion that maybe a world war could mean perhaps a restriction or even complete removal of internet capabilities. Of course all of us would flip since the internet is our lives anyway, but to put it into perspective for just myself, I'd lose all contact with Nadine and so many other people who mean a great deal to me and I'd be devastated to lose.
Yes my claim here may be farfetched but during World War Two, you had submarines sinking all our ships and therefore we had to ration everything due to such a shortage. Apply either an alternative to that to the present day or exactly that, I'd perhaps lose foods that I love.
I am very much aware that I sound like a selfish prick but I assure all of you, I am not centring it on my fears of what may happen just for me in order to come across like I only care about myself, I am only personalising it to provide the perspective of one person so you lot can try and apply your own examples to your own life. Let me put it this way.
My name is Luca and I'm 20 years old. Yesterday and today, I was getting giddy whilst watching the teaser for Kingsman: The Golden Circle and I was smiling from ear to ear, I have been playing my video games and earlier today, chatting to my friend Nadine about going to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi together or the 2018 Dutch MotoGP with her as a part of my 21st birthday. I have such a great life and some incredible people around me, and whilst I'm not going to say it's perfect, I've been fortunate, and I'm grateful for what I have.
Now all of you may have read my article and laughed hard, I don't apologise for who I am or what I say. I don't want amazing acknowledgement for my words, I just want all of you to realise that a World War happening whilst thankfully it may never come to that hopefully, it could and your way of life right now could change entirely. What we all have right now, we may take for granted but just imagine all of it being taken away.
I have dreams; I want to convince the right people to make a movie adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time with Taron Egerton and Gary Oldman, I want to write novels and I want to design vehicles for the GTA series of games. But if I can safely say that if a World War breaks out, I'll make it through or not, one of two things are going to happen.
Option one? Everything changes completely. There's too much to say here, but a load of my friends have died for my country and my life goals have had to be adjusted to suit the needs of the people or if the field I intend to work in, that just removes itself from the equation altogether. Or worse, I'm forced to go to war and if I don't want to kill, I'll probably be thrown in jail or bullied by my superiors or peers.
Option two? I die, as morbid a thought that is. That's it isn't it? Lights out! Either eternally spending your time on a cloud with a load of people with halos carrying a harp or floating around where it is only black, whatever you believe in.
We are all here to live a life, and I know I sound like I'm having an existential crisis here. It's our duty to live a life and serve your purpose with what time you have, and love who you can because tomorrow, you may not have the chance to.
If there's anything I want to end off by saying, and without sounding like a broken record, live life how you want to live it. We have morons in charge of countries who are old fashioned, have a backwards way of thinking and some are even down right horrible. Waving their nukes around and using them as metaphorical genitalia, I'm not having it.
Do what's right to your fellow man, and I'll say this now, we are all one race. You'll see some people take what I have to say and add on their own little perverse agenda, and to remove that power from them, I say this now, we are the human race. You see someone who needs help, you help them.
Thank you for reading, take this however you may please. I don't apologise for any of it, just do what's right and let yourself live a full life.
So, until we meet again.
Luca.
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