The worst thing about war was the sitting around and wondering what you were doing morally.
Paul FussellRead
If truth is the main casualty in war, ambiguity is another.
Interpretation
In war, the truth often suffers, but uncertainty also plays a significant role.
Paul Fussell's quote highlights the dual impact of war on reality and perception. While the chaos and violence can obliterate objective truths, they also breed ambiguity, complicating our understanding of events and decisions. This reflects the moral and psychological complexities faced by individuals in wartime, suggesting that clarity is often sacrificed in the fog of battle.
In practice
During a discussion on the ethical implications of war in a seminar.
The worst thing about war was the sitting around and wondering what you were doing morally.
When you speak of heaven, let your face light up...When you speak of hell well then, your everyday face will do.
I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend... I can pretend that things last.
Damn the great executives, the men of measured merriment, damn the men with careful smiles oh, damn their measured merriment.
Today it is becoming increasingly apparent to thoughtful Americans that we cannot fight the forces and ideas of imperialism abroad and maintain any form of imperialism at home. The war has done this to our thinking.
I have seen firsthand how injustice gets overlooked when the victims are powerless or vulnerable, when they have no one to speak up for them and no means of representing themselves to a higher authority. Animals are in precisely that position. Unless we are mindful of their interests and speak out loudly on their behalf, abuse and cruelty go unchallenged.
You can't retrieve you life (unless you're on Wikipedia, in which case you can retrieve an inaccurate version of it).
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