Complacency or Chaos?

Before I write about the idea that I have grasped in my mind, let me tell you about a guy that is currently in my day-to-day occurrences. For identity purposes, I'm going to call him Tom. Tom is a pretty cool guy, he's somewhat progressive, loves wine and travel, appreciates light conversation, practices martial arts, and can appreciate the beauty of culture. Tom is also a former Marine. And while Tom may have a lot of great interests, Tom also has a military way of thinking. He has seen the yellow eyes of his enemies, he has felt the intense heat of battle, and has endured the constant fear of danger. Now Tom lives in a civilian world, a changed man. A man that has fought for his country. A man that has done a great service to the civilians around him, yet little do they know of it. And he knows it. It bothers him, which also brings him back to his childhood, when he was picked on by his older siblings yet treated lesser than his younger siblings. He is forced to feel something that others around him cannot understand. So he holds himself to a standard. He supports himself under the belief that he is better than others because he has seen danger under the likes of which no one around him can even try to comprehend. And despite all of the literature and films that portray the danger that he has lived, they cannot truly grasp the pure terror that he has experienced. The fear that he may never see his family again, the worry that he may never be able to go out on the town with his buddies, the terror that he may never have the chance to marry the woman of his dreams, and the horror that he may never have the chance to step foot on the soil that he calls home. How can anyone who has not lived this nightmare even begin to understand?

And as a result of this terrifying experience, Tom has become impatient. He views the people that he has come home to as unappreciative, as selfish, as self-centered. When they complain, he is angered. He is filled with a fury for the lack of ignorance and sympathy that resides in the hearts of the people that he vowed to protect. Tom begins to become annoyed with disobedience and what is different than what he was commanded to do during his service. He expects people to change. He expects people to try to understand, and when they don't, what happens? They get irritated. They become uneasy with someone who cannot deal with a civilization that hasn't seen the chaos that doesn't fit with the organized society that they have become adjusted to. Ultimately, imbalance occurs. Complacent citizens of a systematic society must deal with uneasy, battle-hardened veterans of war. And the only thing that I can think is one simple question: how is that fair?

How do we as civilians expect to understand the sacrifice that war veterans have made throughout history? I mean, obviously, the common saying is "Nothing in life is fair." But is that really the best answer that we can give? Or is it an easy way for us to cope with things that we cannot understand?

As much as one can hope, and as radical as it seems, war must be the cause and peace must be the solution. Yet, simply saying "Let's stop war!" is a childish and unrealistic idea. Obviously, there are going to be bad people in this world, and those bad people have to be stopped. However, how can peace be ever found if all we know is fighting and war? Isn't there a stop to it? There has to be. But at the moment, no one knows. And the best we can do to approach peace is to become better people. To be more understanding, to be calmer, to be less reactive, to think with our hearts instead of our fury. To avoid seeing each other as some hostile alien that wants to harvest our souls. Even if they cut us off in traffic. Let's try seeing each other as human beings. That's the best answer we've got, and it seems to be the only one as well.