ID:1488930
 
I like Naruto because it shows how much perspective impacts things. From the beginning of the series, it looks as though Akatsuki was just this group of people who killed people for fun. That Pain was some evil prick or that Madara was just some guy taking his frustration out on the world. When in reality, a lot of the antagonists of this series were only pursuing what they believed would bring about peace to the world. As we see in Nagato's past, from his perspective, Leaf ninja were evil, because all he remembers is Leaf ninja murdering his parents. Is he wrong for believing that way? His parents were civilians, weren't even involved in the war, yet Leaf ninja decided to barge in and slaughter them. After all the crap Nagato had to experience, you can't blame him for going to the extents that he did, especially when he thought that the end result would put an end to all the conflict.

I don't think any of the antagonists are "wrong" - the series is merely showing how people can have the exact same goals, but perspective can cause people with common goals to hate one another and feel one is justified and the other isn't. And it's the same in reality. How do we know the guys who hi-jacked the planes on 9/11 weren't wronged by Americans the same way Nagato was wronged by Leaf ninja? Think about how many civilian families are destroyed from American bombings over in the Middle East. How can we blame the survivors for growing up and becoming suicide bombers when we cause them to experience that kind of pain? And what right do we have to call anything and everything we do "heroic", or "noble", and "strong"? Because when our bomber jets fly over the heads of innocent people who have nothing to do with these conflicts, from their perspective, I highly doubt they consider those individuals piloting the jets to be heroes.

When wars break out, we forget the fact that the enemy soldiers are no different than our own. Americans fight because they believe they are protecting their country, and more importantly, their family. They see it as a necessary evil to secure a future for their wife and children. And it's the same in Russia. And Japan. And the Middle East. These are people who believe their actions secure a future for their loved ones. So who is more justified? Are you morally correct just because you're fighting for "America" and they're wrong because they fight for "Vietnam"? What makes your family more important than a family in Russia? Just because it's YOUR family means someone else's family deserves to die?

The fact is, no murder is justified. America is just as much a terrorist as Al-Qaeda is. I'm not saying I can't understand WHY these things happen, but at the end of the day, all of these wars only serve to keep the cycle going. If fighting brought about peace, we would have achieved peace hundreds upon hundreds of years ago. However, here it is, 2014, and we still haven't figured out that ammunition isn't going to fix the world. The cycle ends when someone endures pain and still manages to forgive. No progress is possible when our nations are driven by greed, oppression, deception, and revenge... all things that cause war.
I challenge you to try to convince a country to lay down its arms and demilitarize.

The truth is they won't hesitate to tell you "no", because every other country is militarized and they can't afford to show this weakness.

The world is one giant Mexican stand-off, and one country laying down its weapon is only going to get it killed. That's the unfortunate truth. The closest thing we could hope for would be a piece of paper that had all countries demilitarize at once - but that treaty is still just a piece of paper, which weighs much less than a rifle.

So in the end, we are forced to endure. We fight against those who would fight against us to protect what is important to us, if only for a limited time. We endure the constant pressure of threats from all around, and we (the military) endure the inevitability that we will be the ones called out to keep our countrymen safe at all costs.

Of course you can call out that our military is not always used in this manner, but in the end that finger cannot be pointed at the military. The brave men and women who choose to serve keep their motivation to do so each day knowing that they are their country's lifeline, but they are also their country's explosive darts whenever the upper chain of command decides to start playing Cricket. This is an unfortunate reality that we wish was not true, but endure instead.

That's my view on that, anyways.

As far as the Naruto stuff goes, all I have to say is yeah, most good stories don't involve a cookie-cutter villain with a personality that people cannot relate to. Every good story with excellent twists opens its possibilities to execute the twists because they have villains with depth that the reader/viewer/etc can relate to and sometimes even empathize with. If the reader empathizes with the villain, you can manipulate their emotions and even leave them conflicted with who is really in the "right".

I suppose Bleach (SOFT SPOILER ALERT) is going slightly in this direction with the giant signs pointing to "shinigami are not the good guys" coming up all over this latest arc. It has been hinted at throughout the series but it has really been coming up a lot lately.
I'm not saying the finger SHOULD be pointed at the military, but I'm saying it's inevitable. Once again going back to the civilian example. If you're a kid, watching your family get murdered by Americans, you're not going to grow up thinking "I don't blame those soldiers, I blame the evil American government". No, you're going to hate the soldiers as well as the entirety of America, so much to the point that you will cling to false hope ( what is it, 60 virgins? or something idk ), and sacrifice your life to rid the world of people you feel are evil ( which, is a legitimate perspective in this scenario, seeing Americans bomb civilians, you would have no reason to believe otherwise ) to reach peace. Crazy, sure, but that's what war produces. Craziness.

The bottom line is we are not working towards a solution. As you said, the fighting only guarantees a LIMITED time of protection. The reality of the matter is one day, America will fall just as Rome did. It's the inevitable cycle brought upon us by our obsession with conquest. Which is the point the anime is trying to make. It takes people like Naruto to come along to show people that compassion for not just your family but your enemies as well is what would give all of us the world we desire.
Communism solves all.
In response to Lugia319
Lugia319 wrote:
Communism solves all.

Yeah cause I want someone telling me how many cars I can or cannot have.
See people don't even get ocmmunism right thanks to soviet russia. The soviet union was not a communist state. China today is *not* a communist state.
Well thats only information I know is regarding Soviet Union's way of communism. (The way US portrays it in our school History books.)
Is it me or does the SSoSP Madara look like Grimmjow from Bleach?
Soviet Union wasn't communist. All of the communist counties you read of aren't communist. Communism is too optimistic for this world.
In Naruto, Naruto wants to bring about peace to the world by having everyone understanding one another. In our realm there are several barriers to this. One being language (Tower of Babel.)

Madara wants to control peoples minds world wide. In our realm sounds like some sort of drug or system that influences someone to a programmed set of behavior like a robot.