Everything Is Fair in Love and War

"Everything is fair in Love and War" Do you agree with your statement? Defend your position.

The statement "Everything is fair in love and war" has been used as a commonplace term by people to accomplish their objectives using all the necessary means at their disposal. Then again, one has to be aware of the fact that God has created all men equal and it is immoral that someone satisfies his or her objectives at the expense of pain and suffering of others. In fact, one should be just, fair and impartial just the way one expects somebody else to treat them. By subjecting someone or a party to cruelty is not acceptable under the watchful eye and at times leads to severe repercussions. Therefore, I beg to differ regarding the quote that been made above.

Firstly, let us delve into the definitions of Love and War. Love means a strong feeling of affection. The cliché regarding love is that when we are talking about love it is usually limited to love between people. Love can branch out to love for ones' country i.e. patriotism. Love can be the love for necessities like food, the love for material possessions like cell phone or even the love for entertainment like travelling. For the sake of simplicity the focus will be on the love between people. War means a state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country. Wars are usually waged between countries and between states.

The origins of the quote can be traced to Frank Farleigh (1850, by Francis Edward Smedley, 1818 - 1864) and is the popular paraphrase of "Love and War are the same thing, and stratagems and polity are as allowable in the one as in the other." - Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616), Don Quixote (1605 -1615). So this is sufficient warrant that the idea has been into existence for quite a while now. Regarding the quote "Everything is fair in love and war" I totally disagree. It is ok and understandable that we fall in love, as love is a human emotion blessed upon us by the Almighty. At the same time we have to be rational when we take our decision with whom we want to fall in love with. People only say that when they are going to do something questionable. And if it is questionable to begin with, it probably stands to reason that it is not the smart or fair move. For instance let us consider X, Y and Z as three individuals where X and Y are males and Z is the female. Let us suppose that Z is Y's girlfriend, and X knows Y. Despite knowing about Y and Z, X cannot wrap his mind around not having Z for himself. Morally speaking, X should accept that Z is not his and not try to manipulate Z so that she ends up falling for X. Of course, this implies that women are incompetent and naive and can be easily manipulated by men's whims. The converse can also be true in the case of men being incompetent and being manipulated by women's whims. Now optimists of the world would dissect this situation and interpret it as the outcome of true love. But really what is the definition of true love? Before jumping into conclusions let us see the situation in another light. When X first saw Z it was just the spur of the moment. X knew nothing about Z and instead his emotions got the better of him. In my opinion there was no understanding established between the two individuals with one responding to his senses, and other being manipulated. What Z failed to realize was that if he managed to manipulate Y, Y may certainly be manipulated by someone who has more charm and is cleverer than him. As a result Y might end up falling for that someone and subject Z to the same pain that Z subjected X to and we are back to square one. Z's actions may have caused X to have an unprecedented and unexpected anxiety and shock at what expense? Having Y for some time and then losing her to someone else. People may say that the world is cruel, but in this case fate has its part to play. It just gets to show that how one's action leads to fateful consequences. While we maybe so engrossed with X and Z, let us not ignore Y. From Y's actions it can be deduced that she is very shallow and superficial and will go for someone who promises her better.

The above scenario can be applied in reverse motion, with the man falling prey to a woman's powers of persuasion. But whatever the case maybe, just because we are in dire need for something we will do everything necessary to claim it for ourselves while depriving someone else of something precious? The person who was deprived may seek revenge which usually may not end well for either party. He might even commit suicide out of anxiety. For sane and normal people, we have the potential to think and to take decisions, and as human beings we should be unselfish regarding some matters and for the sake of mankind ponder about how our action can affect someone else. Otherwise, if the strongest man has fallen at the feet of a woman or vice versa, civilization will surely crumble.

As for war, it can be said that man has waged war on man for centuries. One thing is certain about war, war does not take any prisoners; war is about wreaking havoc, annihilation in other words, war is characterized by extreme violence, social disruption, and economic destruction. As the definition suggests, war is about devastation. It is ok that nations go into wars but it should not be taken for granted that one can do anything they want in war. In a sovereign nation there are the civilians and there are law enforcers. Civilians are