War is the collective unconscious suffering that manifests in a denial of life. It places people in bestial states and increases tribalism. War fuels the polarization of nations and carries trans-generational trauma. It is undoubtedly ugly. But what about life after?
Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art, stated in an interview with Lex Friendman that if war did not end up so bloody, it would be a positive thing because what happens afterward is often beautiful. Post-war life is the resurgence of personhood, an attempt to rebuild in a truer way than before, and to build is a creative act in itself.
War is a catalyst for social change. War sets new structures of thought. War intermingles cultures. War is the rubble of the past and the fight for a vision of the future. War is the birth of new societies.
After the genocide in Rwanda, about a million of the eight million population was killed. Many of the perpetrators fled, and the population decreased even more, making the post-genocide nation 70% female.
The country desperately needed to be rebuilt, and women were the ones who did so. Women mothered orphans. Women rebuilt churches. Women became doctors and lawyers. Women entered into politics.
Today, 64% of parliament seats are held by women, making Rwanda a global leader in female representation for government. Prior to the tribalistic warfare, Rwanda was a patriarchy. The creation of female-centric work was due to the country’s need for resurgence. This rise in female empowerment occurred not from a call for feminism or equal rights but the necessity to rebuild their homeland.
During war, everyone is in autopilot mode and survival. But after war, society goes through an introspective process that cultivates newness of thought. All superficiality is banished, and there is a forced focus on the necessary. Confronting death does that to the psyche; it brings people into what is most real.
Everything that remains, is a reconfiguration afterward, from the structure of government to how families express love. War is the most powerful force of creation because from the destruction, humans shape life from scratch.
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