I feel depressed because of war

It's impossible for the an average person to change the world. It's 2015. The media and people with selected authority choose how the world works :/

We're taught to think that. However, there are lots and lots of examples where people rising up together can bring about great change. Just 'average' people.

The Arab Spring is a great example of that and Syria is one consequence. It's easy to feel sad about the outcomes of protest and things often take a lurch back, because all of the self-serving special interests that people were protesting about are still in place. It was hard to remove Assad because the Baath government are so callous and lacking in humanity, but he would have gone if the West had reacted properly and supported the students and others who protested in Syria. Instead, they sat on their hands. That could have been changed with more demands from ordinary people here.

What is you opinion on those Kurds doing this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/opinion/the-kurds-democratic-experiment.html?_r=1

Should we be helping them?

To be frank this is where I don't really get the dogmatic non interventionism that exists in lots of left wing circles. Either the left in western Europe has been completely lobotomized and doesn't stand for anything other than managing capitalism in a more humanist way ad has completely lost its more radical elements. British Socialists would sneak off to fight in the Spanish civil war to help similar factions, now they just stand in London with 'no more war' placards

It has been happening in the world since the born of humanity and will carry on until humanity becomes extinct. You just got to accept it.

War is a fact of life. Get used to it.

It sounds great to me.

I agree with a lot of what you say, I think the organised left in, for example, the UK, is in a state of utter confusion. They've learned muddled and incoherent lessons from Blairism. Sad to say, but Tony Blair was actually more right than many of the Blair-attackers on intervention, it's a question of how to intervene, where and when and how to make it work, not a blanket rejection because we feel awful because America doesn't run a war without loads of needless killing and because Iraq was subjected post-invasion to a bizarre experiment in reactionary US republican market ideology and ridiculous mismanagement and under-financing.

We shouldn't be basing our views on the fact that Rumsfeld and Cheney are a pair of complete ****wits and Blair is a money-making toad.

I always block those posts on my facebook. I don't want to be seeing that stuff on my news feed lol.

Join a charity and start doing things to help improve the situation if it bothers you so much.

What often helps is to go to sleep. You won't remember a thing after a good night's sleep.

That, or alcohol. Nothing dulls the mind like alcohol.

lmfao this was such a dickheaded comment.

The same was true of slavery. And theocracy. And absolute monarchy. And conscription. And smallpox. And 101 other things.

We, as people, have brought about change for the better time and time again.

War is being chipped away at by treaty after treaty that have constrained weapon types, what should happen to civilians, how the environment can be impacted, where was can be waged and courts to tackle those that break the rules. It doesn't all always work, but things have changed hugely from the use of dum-dum bullets, poison gas and sending millions to walk into machine-gun fire.

The mass pitched battles have gone away. The current lesson seems to be not to topple the sovereign governments of other countries - it makes their citizens grumpy and allows extremists to fill the vacuum.

So is cancer. So is the death of your parents, your family and your friends. Get used to it.

Not a helpful response, is it?

Nice to meet you too, rat poison. That's an apt username for somebody calling somebody else dickheaded.

Your stupid post seems to suggest…

It's impossible for the an average person to change the world.

No, I'm not going to sit back and watch people die

it is that belief that makes you feel depressed about it. But that belief is not entirely accurate. Every change that has ever occurred started with someone thinking "i want to do something about this".

Good. "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing."

you could support doctors without borders / médecins sans frontières. They help the victims of war (amongst others) and, given they've just had two hospitals destroyed by airstrikes lately, they could do with some support. (wouldn't it be nice if the usa had said "oops. We're not taking responsibility, but how much $$$ do you need to replace that hospital?" )

you might want to learn more about the movement for the abolition of war. They are an organisation of volunteers with a huge dream trying to make a huge difference. Their web site has links to lots of similar organisations.

war resisters' international are a pacifist activist group. Perhaps you would be proud to be a war resister. They are active in all sorts of areas to try to prevent violence and promote peaceful alternatives.

You may be more interested in the peace pledge union. Would you sign a peace pledge to 'renounce war and never again to support another'?

If you want to not pay for war, there is a peace tax bill going before the government next year, which, if accepted, would mean you can say you want your tax money that would have gone on military activity (about 10%) to go on peace-making work instead. conscience taxes for peace not war are leading on this. Writing to your mp to say you support this would help. There's a news article about the bill here.

conscience and peace tax international is uk based but campaigns globally for the right to legally object to paying for armaments or war preparation.

There are numerous religions groups too, if you are that way inclined, not just anglican but especially the quakers.

Do any of those float your boat?