Anti-war symbol
When a Nazi officer saw a reproduction of the Guernica painting in Picasso’s house, he asked: “Did you do that?” The artist replied, “No. You did it.”
The famous painting was created in May 1937. Guernica is a city of the Basque Country in Spain. On April 26, 1937, a volunteer Luftwaffe unit raided and bombed the city. In just three hours they dropped several thousand bombs on Guernica. I can’t even imagine what was really going on there.
The painting became a symbol of modern warfare, and for a long time its reproductions were used at anti-war protests around the world. Each figure, each fragment that the artist portrayed has its own meaning. For example, a lamp is a bomb, a bull is a symbol of aggression. The painting is filled with a cry of pain and despair: a woman with a dead child is depicted on the left, a burning woman on the right, and a dead soldier in the middle. Picasso tried to convey the horror of what was happening, and he succeeded.
The painting, which so vividly shows the image of human tragedy, has become an anti-war icon. This is probably why in 2003, during a speech by U.S. General Colin Powell at the UN headquarters in New York, a reproduction of Guernica was draped in blue. Because the general’s speech was aimed at the United States going to war with Iraq.
Who did this?
History repeats itself, and peace is always succeeded by war. You can talk for a long time about the horrors of war, paint pictures and make movies, it still can’t be avoided. War is a normal state of humanity. Because people are not capable of living in peace for long. You can look at Picasso’s words differently from this point of view: “You did it. We make the war; all the wars in the history of mankind have been made only by us humans.
Since the beginning of history, people have fought over territory, over resources. With the emergence and development of monotheistic religions, another cause of conflict between peoples was added.
But why is it so hard for us to live peacefully? Why are people always looking for a reason for discord? We understand that this is wrong, that war brings only pain, tears and death.
When will the wars end?
World War II ended almost 77 years ago, more than 71 million people died. man. To give you an example: France had a population of almost 69 million by 2021. man. Imagine, killing more than the country! Creepy. But no. We humans can’t get enough. Few quarrels, few wars, and few deaths. Few tears of mothers and wives.
Conflicts haunt all of us since childhood. At home, on the street, at school, at work – everywhere. Unfortunately, it’s easier for people to fight than to make peace. It is easier to conflict than to seek peaceful solutions to problems. We are all used to judging, looking for faults and flaws in others, but not in ourselves. Here one might recall the famous biblical phrase: “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye… Hypocrite! Take the beam out of your eye first…”.
It seems to me that if each of us really thought about who we are and what we bring to the world, many conflicts could be avoided, including military conflicts. Don’t look for a flaw in someone, but look inside yourself.
We are all so interconnected now, so intertwined with each other, that we don’t even realize that we influence each other not only by our actions, but by our thoughts!
Many blame politicians for what is going on. But, really, nothing just happens. Every event means something and every event is a lesson. And each of us should, first of all, look at ourselves and think about what to do: to sow hatred and discord or to try to find another way.
Now, looking at a Picasso painting, I increasingly catch myself thinking that this is not the past. This is both the present and the future. I want to shout out to the world: let’s stop this madness! So that neither we, nor our children, nor our loved ones suffer the way those touched by war suffer.
