I love to watch war movies. I love to watch them not for the graphic violence they graciously depict, but to understand the way the Ideology responsible for that war is shown by them. Previously, I had watched a 1993 Russian/German movie Stalingrad, Saving Private Ryan, Inglorious Bastards, Fury, The Schindler’s List, American Sniper and many more. Few days ago, I sat in a movie theatre expecting another American triumph story which, in general, is Hollywood’s default bottom line in war genre. I was shown 13 Hours: The secret soldiers of Benghazi. It was based on true events and I found it very truthful to its genre.

After watching several such kind of war movies and reading much about its war history, I am much confused about the ideologies that takes toll on innocent people. The brutal Islamic terrorism that is continuing to kill innocent civilians, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Propaganda which had devastated the Europe, much criticized American foreign policy which I don’t want to discuss about, North Korea’s desperation for its arms nirvana and don’t care attitude etc., are in fact examples of fatal ideological conflicts which altered the geopolitics of the modern world.

Why should an ideology be criticized on the first hand? Why shouldn’t it be analyzed and discussed? Recent commotion between student groups of prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Indian government is born out from ideological differences between Communism and Hindutva Nationalism. After witnessing the (biased) reports of these unfortunate incidents, I had my mind searching for the true meaning of free speech and sedition in the context of Indian democracy.

Islamic state of Iraq and Syria

The western allies never fail to condemn the Islamic terrorism collectively but they always overlook the grave facts and theories that truly explain the birth and rise of such brutal groups. Meanwhile, these brutal terror groups neither have time nor good enough to digest the Quran. I was terrified recently by delving into an investigative report by The New York Times on ISIS’s enforced usage of contraceptive pills on its sex slaves, minor Yazidi women in particular, just to prevent them from pregnancy. The report also came out with other facts and details which explained the brutality of ISIS. And ISIS had justify their acts by foolish arguments. What influenced them to make use of captives in such a ruthless manner and how the hell could they justify their insane acts? Again, the ideology comes into the picture, the basic ideology, upon which these men are creating havoc, the ideology which was crafted from the misinterpretation of their great holy books.

Nazi Propaganda

Adolf Hitler’s Nazi propaganda killed around six million Jews. He had developed his own ideology based upon several situations he had gone from his childhood. He explains his belief, grievances and other future actions in his autobiography Mein Kampf, which he authored while he was a war prisoner.  Literally, his perception of various incidents in his life built an ideology in his mind which resulted in the death of six million Jews and many more in the 2nd world war.

On the other side of the coin, we could see the swift, incredible and enviable rise of Germany from the ruins of the 1st world war both economically and militarily within a decade. And that exhuberant rise and development has unequivocally took inspiration from the same ideology of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany that killed millions. So, was it good or bad to Germany? In the coming days, did it commit more harm than good? History knows the answer.

Modern economic and political ideologies

The economic and political ideologies of capitalism and socialism polarised the modern world. While the former made the rich even more rich and virtually handled over the executive powers of the countries into the clutches of few private corporations, the latter curtailed the economic freedom of individuals and gave rise to dictatorship in few countries. Both ideologies were great and buried the imperialist regimes. Unfortunately, both of them struggled with own limitations which would have been clearly avoided had they followed the true principles of Democracy. Did they? They didn’t.

I can state that people nowadays have finally brought down The Quran, The Bible and The Bhagavad Geetha into mere dictionaries. In fact, they literally consider the verbal meaning of its preaching and not the ideal inner meaning of them. An ideology where an individual conscience is driven away completely and infested with external influences would definitely have irreversible impact on societies and their future generations as well.

I can’t conclude now on this topic with above statements because I can’t predict what would happen in the future with the ongoing ideological differences and mutual disrespect. Let’s hope for the better future.

Feature image by U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Eli J. Medellin [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons