Of not knowing the full picture

Time for a little time traveling: Some years ago, when I was 13 years old, me and my sister went on our first and last mini vacation together (as in, just the two of us). I remember very vividly, when we were in the museum, there was one art work that pulled me in. A tree, covered with a fence like struckture. One was supposed to look at the random, small and big holes of the fence, and draw what one saw, and attach it on another fence. The artist(s) wanted to show how we can never, even as a society, get to see the whole picture, or the whole idea. There are always blind spots. This is what I want to discuss today. (There are mentions of the war in Ukrain,the I/P conflict and the 7th of October, take this as a trigger warning) Before we get into the heavy stuff, lets start with something lighter: People surrounding us. We may never know why someone is the way they are. They can give us snippeds of their life, they can share memories and emotions with us, but we will still, never be able to 100% understand them. And I don't think we have to understand anyone fully, to love them or show them respect. Sometimes, just listening and not judging, is the best way to go.

During our days, we are so used to getting overstimulated with different information, through social media, people, advertisement and so on, that we feel as if we know it all. Everyone is an expert on all the Wars, on Psychology, on Human Behaviour, on all the Genders, on Art, and so on. Social Media made us believe, that our opinion is always right, because there is always someone who agrees on it, even if we have no idea, what we are talking about (I do know how absurd it is to state that, while sharing my thoughts, I am selfaware for that, and I do think, this also goes for me, but alas, I can not shut up).

I remember when Russia striked Ukrain with a big attack, a few years ago, leading to this terrible war, still going on, how one of my professors in University explained: "Even though, we live through it, we can not say what made Putin do this." There was not a single reason that would explain: Why now? This professor was someone who studied Ukrain and Russia for sometime by then, so her saying that was quite shocking to me. But she continued on: "Why did Hitler go the lenghts he did? We don't know. We will never be able to understand history in full, this is something that we, as historiens, have to accept. There are never enough trust worthy sources to explain everything fully.". Back then it took me a while to understand what she ment. After her, another professor spoke about holocaust studies and she as well agreed with it. Even with all the different sources, we will never know why did some people fight the Nazis and others killed innocent civilians. And this is not even that far back in the past. How are we supposed to understand stuff like the church in the middle ages, when we can't even understand the people of our time? We will always be left with a guessing game.

Now when we look at Israel and Palestine, we usually have the idea that Everyone and their Mom and their Toddler know absolutely everything about the conflict. Everyone is an expert, even if they just "feel a certain way", most never been to the area, would be able to find it on a map or have any historical knowledge, but they still can't shut up about the conflict. Now I got a question: Why did the 7th of October happen? And I don't want to hear any wild guessing games or weird sources, that noone has checked, I would want to know the truth from all sides. Why did Hamas chose this date and time? Why did it take so long for the IDF to react? Why did all of this happen and the world stayed silent? All the pain that this caused and the world is still acting as if this was some funky movie where you cheer for your favourite character.

Most people in the West never had to experience war themselves, most never were in greater danger, but still they think they have to share their unasked opinion to everyone who is affected by the conflicts, as if anyone would care ("Well, Ukrain can just stop fighting back Putin." is something I read way to often. Absoulte BS.). A friend of mine was in Israel when Iran shot a whole ton of rockets, she herself was, like many people, scared for her life, and scarred mentally ever since then. This was not a small rocket, that was intercepted by the Iron Dome, these were huge rockets, that made enough damage. People here, in Austria, told her how she should not be so "emotional about it", because she was hiding in a bunker, praying to survive, while Gazans "don't even have that". Thinking being bombed could be less bad in point A compared to point B is by far the most privileged BS I heard in sometime, and that says something. Unless you know how it feels, when the ground is shaking, you hear the bombs exploding, all around you, and you can just hope, that the bunker you are in, is not a massgrave, shut up. War is a terrible thing, and there are more losers then winners, if there are any winners, at all.

And still, here we are. People talking about wars, like it's a discussion about the last book they read, siding with whatever feels good to them, instead of just asking for peace (also I want to point out that war is not a trend, Ukrain should not be ignored like that, neither should other war zones, on which I, myself, also have to do more research). In a few years, when Bz"H all the wars are over, I don't think anyone will be able to actually explain, why things happened, the way they did. Some will try to make sense of it, like they did with other historical things, but as so many times before, we can only guess. Many will act as if they were the true victims (looking at you, Austria, after World War 2), and it will take ages to unravel the pain and the truth, should it even be possible. While, I don't think, there is enought space for this here, I also want to mention: In a world, where AI is used more and more, where we can fake pictures, videos and even news articles, it is almost impossible to know the actual truth (see, the bunnies on the trampoline video, where many people thought it was real), unless you experience it, yourself. So what do I wanna take from this: I want to stay critical of the sources, the thinking and learn to shut up more, especially, if I have no idea what is going on.