The horror was relentless, and so was the urge to witness it. I felt this mix of sadness and disbelief, and underneath it all, a rising sense of unease. If it could happen there, why couldn’t it happen somewhere else?
The tone has shifted. This no longer feels like a remote risk, but something inching closer to home.
I’m 27, and I don’t think most people my age, especially those of us from relatively stable democratic societies, ever imagine what it might mean to live through war. One recent poll suggested only 11 per cent of British Gen Zers would fight for their country, and whenever the idea of conscription is raised, Gen Z, of which I am part, is often derided as being too self-absorbed and soft for its own good. Major-General Chip Chapman, for instance, said last year that Gen Z is “easily offended” and “lacks motivation”.
But that’s no longer something we can assume. Populism is rising. Authoritarian regimes are becoming bolder. Misinformation is rife. And while we in the West still live relatively untouched by the worst of it, the fault lines are becoming harder to ignore.
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These are huge political questions, but they’ve also prompted more personal ones for me. What does it mean to belong to a democracy? What responsibilities come with that? And if it came to it – if the safety of our way of life were genuinely under threat – what would I be willing to do?
The answer to that last question, embarrassingly, is no.
Yet as an Irish person living in London, I’ve benefited hugely from being part of the UK. If the country I live in came under threat, would I not feel duty-bound to defend it too? I will continue to mull that one over, at part for the fear of social suicide at home, and – God forbid – being labelled as a “west Brit”.
It’s easy to romanticise war from afar. We all carry fragments of stories – about courage, resistance, victory. But war is not romantic. It’s ugly and unjust. And still, when the worst happens, people show up for each other. People defend what matters. People decide that even if they never imagined themselves in that role, they will take it on.
And I think, quietly, many of us have started doing just that.
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