Nobody Escapes Unscathed
Carl Jung called it psychic epidemics.
War is a collective state of insanity, because, in normal circumstances, most human beings would never do what they are required to do during active duty. Carl Jung called it psychic epidemics.
It’s incomprehensible that a peaceful and kind person can transform into a murderer. That alone can change someone’s perception of reality. How do you reconcile actions that go against your grain? Patriotism plays a huge role in these confusing and conflicting emotions. It is one’s duty to defend their country.
It’s a miracle that more soldiers don’t suffer from psychological trauma after active duty. Perhaps many don’t seek professional help because it will seem weak to admit they were emotionally damaged. How many haven’t died by their own hand because of what they had done or witnessed being done to innocent human beings?
Statistics will show us how many died in a warzone, but it won’t reveal how many died inside, hollowed out by the horror of war. How can you not be irrevocably changed? It defies comprehension.
Any benevolent human being will know that the soldier on the other side is in the same position. They feel the same apprehension, and it destroys them equally. That fact, in itself, can lead to mental anguish that is incomparable. Let’s face it, all soldiers are fighting for the same convictions.
Another disturbing thought is that war is the perfect situation for psychopaths. This gives them a golden opportunity to kill without consequences. They become efficient killing machines, due to their lack of emotions. Many serial killers enlist in active duty because of that irresistible fact.
There have been many accounts of soldiers murdering innocent people, and that already speaks for itself. Another point that should be made is that trauma and PTSD can also lead to this kind of behavior with brutal outcomes, in an active war, and in civilian life.
I am by no means a psychologist, but common sense dictates my opinions. Nobody escapes war unscathed.
Namaste
I just want to add that we should think about how the forever-war industry maligns peace activists. They're portrayed as weak, cowardly, and entitled. We must recognize and resist that characterization.
So important. Thank you for writing this.
You wrote this with such clear-eyed honesty that I had to sit with it for a moment. It’s heavy, yes, but the way you lay out these truths feels like someone turning on a small lamp in a dark room — not to make the darkness disappear, but to help us see what’s really there. Thank you for giving such a human shape to something so hard to look at~