"Hero"

So this movie gave me a whole new perspective on war and why for centuries different rulers/dictators have tried to conquer and control countries and/or the world.

Hero(which stars Jet Li) is a true story about how an assassin tries to kill the Emperor of present-day China. This assassin, along with others believed that the emperor should be killed because he was taking over all the different states and controlling everything. However, near the end, the real story unfolds..revealing that the emperor was only trying to unite all states and make it into one united country. This emperor went on to build the Great Wall of China, thus protecting his united country.

This made me think of present day and many of the wars that have taken place decades ago. Infact, to me today's conflict against "evil" and "terrorism" is not to get rid of evil..rather, in my opinion, we are all trying to come to some form of unity across the globe. But disregarding the wars that go on today, if you think about it, we are all infact turning into one being. The universal language is now English, spreading to even the developing countries. Almost every country is democratic. We all somehow behave the same way, watch the same programs, listen to the same music,etc.

But one thing that the movie missed is the fact that when we become one, we lose our identity, our individuality. That's why I don't necessarily agree with the views of becoming unified across the globe, because to me, we lose the traditions and culture that are specific to each nation. And sadly, it is quite apparent that we are losing our culture today.

I think the best way would be to unite but to retain our own cultures/individuality. Yea, we may not agree with one another's views but I think we can all get along, if we can learn to accept each other.

The Indonesian motto sums it up well: "Unity in diversity"...that's something we all should strive to achieve, rather than trying to make people conform to a certain way of life.