Jonathan Dodd‘s latest column. Guest opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. Ed
Most people who know me think I’m an incurable and irrepressible optimist. And they’re right. But if they had known me many years ago they would have had a very different impression. I became cynical and pessimistic at a young age and it took a lot of years and effort to turn myself around.
For instance, I well-remember a time when I didn’t dare to allow myself to be happy. In my head I was sitting very still in a large stone armchair in the dark, and there was a very large hammer poised on a spring above and behind my head. I knew that this hammer was primed to crash down if I felt the slightest hint of happiness.
There was no hammer
I stood sentinel over my feelings for years, and I was miserable. Every time I let my guard slip, sure enough, something terrible happened. But one day I realised that I missed being happy so much that I didn’t care any more, all I wanted was a split second of happiness, and if the hammer fell, so be it.
Of course, as soon as I let myself go, it turned out that there was no hammer and no disaster. It was a spell and I broke it, and from then on I concentrated on becoming as happy as I could possibly be. I can still remember that dark room and the presence of that hammer. That memory is now my key to avoiding ever being like that again.
A fan of the ridiculous
Weirdly, this is what I find myself thinking about whenever I contemplate the state of the world. It seems that people get themselves in such a state of mind that they find it completely acceptable to behave in increasingly ridiculous ways. I have to admit to being a fan of the ridiculous, but not when it’s accompanied by bloodshed.
It is a fact, that a lot of young men feel they need an outlet for their surplus energy. There are a lot of ways that this can be channelled. Unfortunately young men are not also known for their judgement and wisdom. I remember. I was a young man once. I’m proud of many of the attitudes I took up and still have, but a lot of them make me cringe now. We’ve all been through it.
Their anger and their need to compete
The worrying thing is when this energy and these attitudes stray into dangerous areas. Their anger and their need to compete can have bad consequences. Driving recklessly, drinking too much, tombstoning, all sorts of activities drive worrying parents to distraction. Luckily most young people have well-meaning adults around them, doing the best they can to encourage them to work it all out for themselves without too much damage.
Mostly this works, and here we all are, surviving and managing. Unfortunately there are people out there who have a different agenda. I see no reason why young people would want to volunteer for battle, where killing or being killed is a reality. Paintballing or go-karting or skateboarding is one thing, but travelling across the world to take up arms seems complete madness to me.
To be and do whatever they want
I hear a lot about the idealism of youth. I remember in my youth the idealism was directed towards stopping wars. We stood up for freedom and a world where everyone respects the rights of themselves and others to be and do whatever they want, as long as that doesn’t involve preventing the same rights for others. Whatever happened to that?
I know a lot of young men travelled to Spain to fight in their civil war in the thirties. Many had high ideals, some just wanted adventure and risk. But they felt strongly that freedom and liberty were being threatened and they wanted to do something about it. Of course when the last war started there was conscription, but generally people thought that the war was just. In previous wars people volunteered because they believed the propaganda, and disagreeing was going to be worse than uncomfortable.
Where are the voices?
What I can’t understand is why young people should go off in droves to fight for a cause that involves killing everyone who disagrees with you, the removal of all the liberties that have been fought for all these centuries, 
and aims to return the world to a state of medieval religious intolerance and ignorance, where the equality of women and the right to education and free speech are removed.
How is it that these young people are allowing themselves to be hoodwinked into thinking that this will solve all their problems, real and imagined? How are they letting themselves be recruited to fight and kill and be killed by old men with a desire for unlimited power? Where are the voices of their parents and teachers in all this?
Are they stuck in some terrible dream?
I was struck by a thought the other day. Who would volunteer to be a storm trooper in Star Wars? They’re so obviously on the wrong side, they’re going to lose, they support leaders who don’t care in any way for them. Have they no brains? Do they have no independent thoughts? Are they stuck in some terrible dream like I was for a while?
I am an incurable and irrepressible optimist, but not in a soft way. I believe that good and right always win in the end. I believe that evil springs up when good people stop paying attention, and I believe that combatting evil is hard and dangerous and utterly necessary. It’s far better and cheaper to ward off evil before it takes hold, but we never learn that lesson.
As they say about every war, it’ll all be over by Christmas. Ho, ho, ho!
If you have been, thank you for reading this.
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