Theory on the nature of War - by relation to the necessity for opposition (related but not exclusive to Putin / Russia's waged War against Ukraine)
A truth I have come to believe is that the quest for meeting one's ambition, will be strengthened by the toil one put towards it, but everything needs opposition to propel it. Without it, one sort of has no rudder.
To pin oneself, in a certain context of the mind, against an idea, person, place, or thing, perhaps the entire world itself, is to spend time in the headspace that fuels a certain kind of ambition which more frequently designs is own perspectives greatness.
For if a worthy opponent, you will come to see both their weaknesses and strengths and then move with choice towards or away from what those are, letting it guide your capacity for the duration of time that the opposing force remains a focus, and get external clarity for what those ambitions truly are.
The next piece here can be ordered as such:
1) The considered heights and the reality of your current relation to them
2) The nature of your opposition- is it intrinsically good or bad? What are the layers to its goodness vs.
3) What are you willing to risk or sacrifice to compete with it? Put another way, how much must you test the system?
4) At what cost?
5) What will be the achievement?
The ultimate goal must be to make peace with it via discourse that ascertains new truths on both sides, at a later date, for why the opposition existed in the first place. To do so, will inevitably deepen insight and to not do so is to forego the entire point of why it existed in the first place.
And if the love that exists in the heart for both oneself and that opposition, for the war that opposition has battled as a result of its inherent nature, perhaps in mind alone, then it can be viewed as a worthy battle to have waged, by the degree to which it was initially just.
Consider a few examples:
-The Cold War and the concept of MAD (mutually assured destruction) and how it also paved a new path for peace. Also the ensuing space race.
-The rivalries of siblings - Venus and Serena. Peyton and Eli, or that within any family
The rivalries of artists -
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/the-10-greatest-artistic-rivalries/?amp=1
The great rivalries of sports teams - Giants vs Dodgers. Packers vs Bears. Lakers vs Celtics. Others.
The rivalry of War, namely the Second World War and its accompanying ideologies, driving the West's fundamental value in freedom of thought
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I am more interested to hear if this rationale is sound in broader contexts, rather than debate if it is true, in its entirety, in the case of the War in Ukraine. I put it here to spur broader discussion on the psyche of War, and how we contend with it.