“War never changes.” – Sole Survivor, Fallout 4

Fallout 4 is a game set in a post-nuclear-apocalyptic wasteland and the Sole Survivor is an ex-soldier who lived before the nuclear war then was frozen before the bombs got him. The quote is first thing the character says as the game starts after a cut scene about war.

This one is quite a poignant quote, it acts as a reminder that there is always death and killing. Whether it’s one person versus another or armies clashing on a battlefield there is always and will always be war. I might even say that there is no peace, as peace is only the time in which we prepare for the next war. The sad truth is that technologies change, they’re improving all the time, so are weapons but people, people don’t change. Weapons don’t kill people, people kill people and people are the ones that have the ill will, bitterness and anger at one another.

I normally try and find something positive – inspiring even – about the quote I use and war not changing is a good thing if you look at it right. Every cloud has a silver lining and all that. Technology is what makes wars great; we have computers, nuclear power, all terrain vehicles, different medical advancements and many more things because wars gave a need to develop them. Empires were built from war, Spain got rich from it’s success in South America, the victors always gain.

We can also see the unchanging nature of war as a good thing because we know that there is some certainty in life, there’s something we can guarantee will happen at some point. That sounds bad considering that I’m writing about war but the certainty that there will be war makes me think about the certainty that good things will happen. Someone will be born today, someone somewhere will become a millionaire, I can go to the shops and buy a cake if I want to; these are positive things that I’m certain of and having the negatives like war and death really makes the positives stand out. We take the positives for granted sometimes because they don’t change and make a big thing of negatives when they don’t. All I’m saying is look to the good and the bad won’t seem as bad.

If you’re reading this, chances are there’s something nice about your life, even if it’s just the fact that you have regular access to a computer so instead of living in fear of the great mushroom clouds live happy about those good things that never change.