Rationality in today's world

Like any child filled with patriotic feelings, I always wanted to be a soldier and serve the country. I wanted to fight the country's enemies with sophisticated weapons. I was conditioned to have a feeling of hatred towards those shown to be the enemies of my country.

With time, my thoughts, my ambitions and my priorities have changed. The flame inside me has blown out. I don't understand the hatred I used to possess for I've found that they are no demons. They are just as humane as us, and just as evil as us. 

I started being rational, or one can say, I started doing something which the authoriarian powers don't want their citizens to be. These powers are shiesty and cruel and cannot withstand parallel thoughts which try to question them.

The citizens are fooled by the greedy propagandas of those who hold power. Rebels are suppressed and those who think are given a villain tag. The powerful shape our minds and anything which they believe can cause harm to their totalitarian propagandas is shown to be against us.

The question which sits on my mind is that "Why do we need wars?" Which gives rise to a series of questions like "why do we need to act like puppets, being controlled by our leaders?" "Why is it that the country's citizens have to die because of the mistakes of it's leaders?" and "Why is the soldier glorified when every citizen works for the country's progress in some or the other way?"

Wars are mostly fought for political and financial gains. And most of the times, the citizens don't really gain anything from them. They suffer loss in the worst of ways and still fight blindly. But the fact that the whole population of a country is considered to be evil by another because of the actions of their leaders is quite distressing.

Most great powers of the world are turning into cruel, fascist states where majoritarianism is the new normal and a particular sect, usually the majority is appeased at once, blindfolded and then used for political gains.

The top choice of a profession if one is extremely patriotic would be to become a soldier. Soldiers guard the country on the battlefields, in high tension areas and many a times, lose their lives. They are hence glorified for giving their lives for their motherland and those who question their actions are thus considered to be a disgrace. What seems ironical is the way we say that no profession holds back. Every person, practising any profession works for the country's development. 

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Soldiers get payed for what they do and they have chosen to live that way. I am in no way trying to undermine their sacrifices as apart from the physical challenges, they suffer from many mental challenges but those who clean our houses, who work in sewers, who make the houses we live in are no less than soldiers. They too work under dangerous conditions, often without protection, breathe in dust and the most harmful of chemicals, lift the heaviest of loads on their bodies, are vulnerable to lethal diseases and rarely get any maternity leaves. 

The solution to every problem in the world boils down to education. Education, not literacy, provides with skills, knowledge and teaches the essentials of living in a society. If one is educated, they would certainly question what's wrong and would like to dig out the reasons behind every action which can affect them.