Why does strife occur?
What is the foundation, and why is the world this way?
We’re capable of loving others, so if it is in our capacity, why must we ultimately
turn to hate?
The answer is multifaceted and complex, but if there is a fine line between love and hate,
maybe we’ve been thinking about love the wrong way.
Maybe what we consider to be true love is just a romanticized dressing covering the
genuine nature of what we feel.
If we could just endlessly love everyone, that would de-value the strength of the relationships
we hold most dear.
We simply can’t.
Humans are incapable of unconditional, endless love, and that is what makes the love we do
hold for those we cherish so important.
We prioritize and hold a select few in high regard, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
But it leads us into an uncomfortable truth: that to care and connect is to establish a
hierarchy and not give others as fair of a chance.
There is only so much room in the human heart, so we must pick and choose those we spend
our times and lives with.
It seems like a cynical thing to say, but from the perspective of someone exposed to
the constant terrors of sweeping conflict, of the ramifications of a war-torn nation,
it isn’t hard to see why one would think this way, and you can’t really fault this
viewpoint without first having lived this horrific life.
Just as we make constant decisions that force us to miss out on something to experience
something else, just as we choose what to do with our time in the finite amount we have
in this world, there is only a limited capacity for love in our hearts, and we cannot love
unconditionally to everyone that we meet.
We have this pecking order.
We have random, entropic biases, along with logical ones built upon giving and taking
and exposure and experience.
We don’t like people because we’re jealous.
We’re petty.
We’re hypocrites.
We ignore the suffering of some while fawning over those we have chosen.
It’s unavoidable, because to feel love equally for everyone in this world is to pain for
every single death or tragedy, coddling our perspective in a blanket of unconditional
empathy.
And no one is capable of handling all that.
Perhaps it’s just an inherent fact of life.
Or perhaps mankind does not have this capacity because they ate the forbidden fruit and exchanged
this prosperous potential for wisdom and progress.
But either way, the human race is deprived of the chance to experience true paradise
as a result of this self-interest.
So to have this human compulsion to prioritize is to discriminate.
And when we discriminate, we feel inclined to defend the things we hold highest and take
everything else for ourselves.
This gives rise to a conflict that never ceases, borne from this seed planted in man.
Nothing on earth with this blessing and curse can possibly embody unconditional true love.
The trees and snow and stars and ocean.
They are love, because they cannot hate or rank.
And as such, the only way for humans to truly love, is in death.
Logic dictates that only when someone becomes unable to think and prioritize, only when
they lose their free will and become one with nature, are they able to embody this.
So In the context of a setting as fundamentally broken and blood-soaked as the one in Vinland
Saga, it is easy to see why this mentality has taken root.
There’s an ironic, horrifying comfort for those hurt by this conflict in simply losing
hope and believe that war is inevitable because there is no genuine love in the hearts of
men, and it’s completely understandable to resent a god that somehow expects you to
achieve the impossible and find salvation in a world like this.
In combatting this, the utilitarianist idea of piling on the corpses on the path to ending
war is often viewed as the only choice to break free, and it is difficult as hell for
anyone who pledges themselves to following that method.
But is it truly the only way?
Is it truly the hardest way?
The dreamers of this world strive to rediscover this paradise once more, whether it be through
force.. or kindness.
But is peace possible without fighting?
Has it just not been achieved yet because man just hasn’t tapped into the true essence
of their love?
We don’t really know, but there can be a fulfillment in trying.
Pacifism is often dismissed as foolhardy and naive.
And in a lot of cases, it is exactly that.
In the eyes of many, it is a hopeless ideal.
However, perhaps striving towards that ideal in a unique way is worth something in and
of itself.
It may not be possible to love every single person unconditionally and it may be impossible
to not have personal hierarchies.
But does that necessarily mean that the only path to salvation and paradise is one slick
with blood?
Can we really only follow this cold logic and express true love once we are dead and
gone?
For a rare few, this fatalism is no option at all, and rejecting this idea and devoting
one’s life to solving this all-encompassing puzzle is well worth the investment.
Why is there any need to settle?
Can we not try for better?
This foreign ideal, this concept that seemed to be alien, this dream of Vinland.. is what
Thors tried to reach after he suddenly became sick of it all.
And he may not have achieved it himself, but his will has the potential of becoming a legacy
that propels mankind into a new age.
It’s excruciatingly difficult, and painful, and tragic.. but in the end, it could be worth
it, and all of that suffering may not be so pointless.
We were expelled long ago, but through sheer agonizing effort, maybe we can aspire to reach
paradise once more.. whether it be with the swing of a sword.. or the shake of a hand.
Many thanks for watching.