fandomhigh | So You're In the Middle of a War, Monday, Period 4

"In any conflict between two people, both sides are going to think they're right. Of course. Why else would there be a conflict?" Zayne asked. "As the conflicts get bigger, that still holds true. Either side in a war feels strongly enough that they're going to send armies out to defend that point of view. But when you have a conflict that size and scale back down to the individual soldiers, their reasons for fighting might not be the same as their army's reason. They might not even be that focused on the bigger picture."

"In the war I'm currently serving in, the Republic's main goal is to defend its territory and its people from the invading Mandalorians. I share that sentiment, of course, but I didn't choose to join the battle until I was convinced that I could do so in a way that hopefully wasn't as destructive as, well, you'll normally get in war. My commanding officer, Captain Dallan Morvis, mainly got into the military to please his parents. One's a captain of industry, the other is a Senator, so he had to carry huge expectations on his shoulders his whole life. Until recently, his main motivation wasn't to defend his people, it was to live up to expectations. And he made plenty of bad decisions in the name of reaching for glory because of it. Decisions that didn't match up with the point of the war." Zayne couldn't help but shake his head a little. Morvis had come a very long way since then.

"On the Mandalorian side, they're tired of being the galaxy's hired guns and want to establish an empire of their own. One of Mandalore's top men, Demagol, didn't care about expansionism at all. He only cared about genetic experiments that had been his life's work, and how being part of the Mandalorian hierarchy could help him there. It didn't stop him from contributing plenty to the war effort, though," Zayne said. A frown he'd been wearing while talking about Demagol eased as he continued. "But I met a communications officer named Ko Sornell who just wanted to maintain her way of life and protect her family. She believed in Mandalorian expansion as part of that way of life, but when her orders disagreed with the importance placed on family, she helped me stop her commanding officer. As far as I know, she didn't get in trouble for it. It was decided that her views were truer to the cause than her original orders."

"What I hope is coming across is that while, yes, armies can have big, clearly-defined goals, you can't always assume that the individual soldiers are all the same. They have their reasons for fighting in the first place. They have their own morals, same as you. That doesn't mean they're right any more than it means that everyone on your side is right. All it really means is that when you get down to it, was can end up being much more complicated than you might think at a glance."

"So, discussion topic. If you're in a war at the moment, what is your side trying to accomplish? And just as importantly, why are you personally involved? Is it because you're just completely in line with you're side's goals, or do you have your own reasons apart from those?"

"And if you're not currently involved, would it take anything special for you to get involved if your nation, or planet, or whatever it is went to war? Would you sign up regardless of the reasons for war out of loyalty to your nation and way of life? Or maybe you would only sign up to defend it. Where do you stand right now?"

So You're In the Middle of a War, Monday, Period 4

Listen to the Lecture