Johnny Got His Gun vs. America The Beautiful

In “Johnny Got His Gun”, Joe comes to the rather premature idea that there is nothing worth dying for because you cannot possibly experience that which you made the ultimate sacrifice for. This pokes a hole in the ideas put forth in “America the Beautiful” where D’Souza states that in order for a war to be won, people must believe deeply in the war and be willing to sacrifice greatly for it. I will not say these ideas clash, for they do not. D’Souza is not saying every cause is worth sacrificing everything for (which would go against Joe), but rather that for a fight to be victorious people must be willing to do so. I find myself fundamentally disagreeing with Joe’s conclusion. Not only can this not be applied on a large scale because Joe is a single individual but also because there are so many examples pointing in the other direction. For example, Harry’s mom sacrifices herself to try and help Harry survive Voldemort’s attacks, showing her willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice, directly clashing with Joe. No but really, on a serious level, if people didn’t think there were issues worth dying for then no one would sign up for the military. No one would act as a suicide bomber. No one would sacrifice their life for another’s. Joe’s view, while understandable due to his predicament, is a rather premature idea that would be hard to apply globally.