Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication or the college.
As the United States plunges itself into the war with Iran, I cannot help but feel worried as a student on campus. When Donald J. Trump was elected for the second time two years ago (2024), What I was most worried about was Project 2025 and its systemic plan to legally turn America into a nostalgically misaligned nation that considered a homogenous perspective on just what it means to be “American”, setting systemic progress back decades. Even earlier than that was his induction of Supreme Court Justices which would later overturn the landmark case Roe v Wade, reverting medical progress into a moral judgement that not only restricted autonomy but ignored necessary nuances. Prior to the events of Iran, the heat from around the Epstein files finally led the government to release pieces of them which had exposed many powerful people, with the main epicenter that was hidden was the president himself.
When we look back at the United States as a country, one must consider just how many wars we have fought. We have fought in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, The Mexican-American War, The Civil War, Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, War in Afghanistan, and Iraq War, in addition to all the military interventions that we’ve had. It seems as if our foreign policy relies on us to go to war, whether it is labeled as for protecting Democracy or for the natural resources to sustain capitalism, most of our time as a country has been in conflict.
With the combination of attacks from Israel and the United States, one must consider that most students on campus are of age to be enlisted into the military at any chance. However, despite this fear and the fact that students may have close ties, or any ties through relatives to the conflict, the dialogue on campus seems to exist normally.
I fear for our generation. I remember distinctly the effect that John Rose’s introduction to Allen Ginsberg had on me when I heard this line “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness” (Howl). Our generation isn’t destroyed by madness, no, we have had to witness the mantle of madness since we were in Middle School. What do I fear most from our generation? That our lives are being robbed right in front of us with these decisions from politicians who won’t have the time to see what it does to us, and to the future generations (such as the Six-Seven generation, Generation Alpha) and instead of mobilizing, uniting, organizing, there is this certain swift doomer approach which makes change seem evasive and the powers that be inevitable when they snatch us from our homes, destroy the economy, pick fights with our allies, while we, the third estate, the people are left with the fallout.
What happens if tomorrow we are drafted? If the economy crashes? If our allies see the blatant arrogance of the US and decide to leave our trade deals? We push so much money into our military and while I used to question the legitimacy of the fact, we almost rely on war to maintain this capitalistic, patriarchal view of ourselves even as newly adults like us are sent off to the Middle East to kill other humans without rhyme or reason because of this ancient grudge against the east unless it aligns with our Judeo-Christian interests.
It is true that Iranians wanted freedom from their Supreme Leader and its restrictive clothing policy, however, despite the assassination of Ali Ayatollah Khamenei, the Iranian government just inserted a new Supreme Leader to uphold its values. Some may view this Iran war as necessary, as a way to spread “Democracy” to the Iranian citizens who need military aid in their time of need, as they have beckoned on Americans to get involved because despite being powerful in numbers, as we’ve seen in our own history, numbers provide influence but not systemic change immediately. However, due to America’s insistence on wars throughout most of its history (see paragraph 2) I am currently aligned with a view of isolationism. Not complete isolationism, but how can any generation know peace if every generation forces its youth to go off to war or to witness war, whether domestically or internationally? What we need right now is not another racist war in the Middle East being for the “spreading of democracy” just because we have the means to. No, what we need is a reinvestment in the American communities, the people need something to believe in and yet we are being sent off to war with nothing to believe in. As long as we meddle in foreign affairs as the international police, we will continue to overcomplicate domestic issues of that country, phrasing ourselves as saviors while our children no longer know what we are fighting for, just that we need to fight because we are morally ordained to.
My views on isolationism may be wrong, because the only way to stand for change is to stand for everyone’s change, not just by identity but by our global community. However, in times like these I like to consider the wisdom of Thors, Thorfinn’s Dad in Vinland Saga, when he tells him, “You have no enemies. No one in the world is your enemy. There is no one you need to hurt.”
