Of War

Author's Note: I wrote this in the beginning of the school-year based on a quote that I found on a Google Chrome app called, "A Quotation". It's a really cool app that allows you to see all different types of quotes. The one that I chose was one of my favorites. 

Knowledge is the worst kind of war. Its purpose may be for greater good; where the cause is redeemed in enlightenment and success. Yet too much of this war is too much sanity. Is madness. When you see the facts of life in the way they are, you see the pain and blood and gore of war. The enlightenment has turned, and the reality of it all can never go away. Wars don't ever go away. It is with us forever in our past, leading the way for the future. Where the future is dark as life, for the way it truly is.

The quote "Too much sanity may be madness - and the maddest of all - to see life as it is, and not as it ought to be. " is truthful. Don Quixote has learned to see as life is, for the making of this quote. He has told, that once our fantasy realities of the enlightened life are washed away by knowledge, you see something so corrupt, so bloody, you can never return. It makes you mad. You long for the positive possibilities you once had, but the true reality takes over in memory.

Personally, I agree completely with this quote. And the way he uses the term "madness" doesn't mean its literal term. He expresses it as  something to desire, to want. The dream that we have evolved for life is of course wonderful, yet is not real. No, the quote is not negative-- It is fact. We have to stop labeling the truth as a negative factor when it comes to the world. Yes, the world is corrupt, it is a decaying face in which we act in selfishness. Because honestly, while some are soaking in the syrup of ignorance, others are mad with the truth. And the only possible way to save ourselves from ignorance, is to fight for the knowledge, the war.

That is why I believe this quote, because like told in the story of "The Giver", the government knew how the world truly was. It's cold marble under your bare feet, each step a new shock of chill; the marble path leading you to a dead end, death. So the Community council allowed and forced its people to live directly in the fantasy reality. Where nothing was painful, nothing was dark. There was nothing to be afraid of, no reason to be negative. What is was, was a lie. Madness diagnosed from facts and the truth were not acceptable. Happiness there, was the goal. The world does not intend for us to be happy, yet our human qualities will force it if need be.

This also takes place in the "Utopian" country of "Fahrenheit 451". Captain Beatty explains it all as it is, for he knows truth, yet forces it beneath himself so he can be happy too. His job, is to make others "happy" also; as he is a fireman, knowing that incinerating the truthful words of books, confiscating it from citizens, will make them happy in the sappy ignorance. The quote does not mention where we receive this knowledge, but books are a good place to start. Thinking, as well. The country leaders figured this, and decided to blame the transcripts and poetry-- punishing them for their hurtful words of truth. Thought was also a problem, so by removing porches and comfy chairs, giving the people ultra-fast cars, and booming loud noises into their heads-- they wouldn't be able to.

"Finally 12", is a book that just scratches the surface of the quote. The protagonist, an 11 year-old girl soon to be 12, has been fantasizing all of the wonderful and possible realities of being older, of being 12. But soon does she realize that everything falls apart, because she has came to the expectations of her dreams, and saw what was true. Shaving did no wonder to her legs, as they came out worse afterwards. Cell-phones only caused friendship drama that was only sped-up due to the speed of a text. And being treated as an adult only led to responsibilities and chores and more work in all. She was depressed with disappointment during those early times, considering her dreams were found false. Then, though, she attempts to make the most of it, and decides that knowing the world as it is, is reward enough for being 12. She labels it as a new chapter in her life-- and from then on sees the war.

The people who were free to see knowledge, otherwise known as the truth, were eventually happy to see it. Although, those living in that supposedly Utopian Society, will think themselves  happy, although only enlightenment will bring that light unto them in the darkness of our futures. And even though knowledge is for your greater good, you will forever see the pain and blood and gore of war...