Morals, Aesthetics, and the Hypocrisy of Modern War

🕊️ When Butterflies Bleed, and Cockroaches Thrive

“If you kill a cockroach, you are a hero. If you kill a butterfly, you are evil. Morals have aesthetic criteria.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

This quote should have been framed at every UN Security Council desk.

Because what we’re witnessing right now—between Israel, Iran, and Palestine—is not just war. It is the weaponization of aesthetics over ethics, where who dies and who kills is judged not by justice, but by how palatable the narrative is to global media and Western diplomacy.

🧠 Nietzsche Wasn’t Talking About Insects. He Was Talking About Us.

In war, nations don’t just kill bodies—they kill the truth.

• Israel is called a “democracy under threat.”
• Iran is labeled a “rogue nuclear state.”
• Palestine is dismissed as “collateral damage.”

Why? Because one looks like the butterfly, one is feared like the cockroach, and the third… is simply too bloodied to matter.

The world cheers when Israel bombs a suspected Iranian facility. It stays disturbingly silent when a Palestinian hospital is reduced to rubble. The morality here isn’t moral at all—it’s aesthetic. It’s about who appears civilized on camera, not who is right.

🔥 Selective Outrage:

When Morality Is Marketed

Western powers jump to condemn when missiles rain over Tel Aviv. But when Gaza children die under drone fire? It’s “regrettable.”

Think about it:

• If a U.S. base in Syria is attacked, it’s “terrorism.”
• If that same base launches a strike killing Iranian generals, it’s “self-defense.”

This double standard is Nietzsche’s nightmare realized. A global morality built on the optics of victimhood, not the reality of oppression.

🧨 Iran, The Ultimate Cockroach?

Iran is demonized with nuclear hysteria. But isn’t Israel the only nation in the region with confirmed nukes?

Yet, Iran is sanctioned, isolated, painted as the monster beneath the bed, while Israel, with its F-35 jets and Iron Dome, is the misunderstood butterfly.

This narrative didn’t write itself. It was carefully manufactured by decades of media grooming, Cold War politics, and oil diplomacy. And now, it’s too profitable to change.

🕯️ Where Do Palestinians Fit?

Palestinians are not even granted the status of either cockroach or butterfly. They are simply… invisible.

When they resist, they are terrorists.
When they die, they are statistics.
When they plead, they are ignored.

The moral compass of the world isn’t broken. It’s for sale.

🌍 What Can Be Done?

1. Deconstruct the Aesthetic Lens
   • Stop judging nations by how their diplomats speak English or how Westernized their leaders dress.
   • Start asking: Who is being displaced? Who is living under siege?
2. Call Out the Hypocrisy
   • The same media that glorifies Ukraine’s defense should not ignore Palestine’s resistance.
   • You can’t selectively apply morality based on who your allies are.
3. Demand Equal Accountability
   • Every nation should be held to the same standard—whether they are democracies, theocracies, or struggling states.

🧾 Final Word

Nietzsche warned us that morality can be a mask, not a mirror. In today’s geopolitics, the world isn’t choosing between good and evil. It’s choosing between beautiful lies and ugly truths.

And until we treat every life—Israeli, Iranian, Palestinian—not as cockroach or butterfly, but as human, war will remain a circus of aesthetic morality.

🔖 Written by Nishanth Muraleedharan (Nishani)
🌐 Visit: nishani.in
✍️ Because the truth should never be photo-filtered.

Comments

comments