Chooser of the Slain

Went to watch Valkyrie at Vivocity as part of company cohesion thing today.. Its basically a show about Hitler, and an assassination attempt. Overall, it was ok. I was kept at tension throughout the whole thing, because I just had to see what was the result of this attempt. I knew it failed, but it looked very promising to success. The plan looked like it was success story, but it failed. Thanks to all the unlucky appearing as obstacles. Now, the question is why did such a brilliantly planned assassination attempt fail? Some would point their finger on that general who failed to immediately put into effect Operation Valkyrie after the bombing, but waited for a full 3 hours before someone got fed up and took the inititative to activate it. Might the refusal of one general with the power of Valkyrie to join the coup, be it? Some would point it on the failure to kill Hitler with the bomb. I must say here, I was extremely disappointed with the effects of the bomb, because it boasted that it would be able to kill a Panzer. All that happened was just as if a strong gust blown outwards from the point of explosion. Some would say it was just bad luck that the location of the meeting was changed, from within the windowless concrete building to a place outside with lots of windows. It was theorised beforehand, that the air concussion waves inside such a concrete windownless building would bounce around and amplify the damage caused, instantly killing everybody in the building. Perhaps, it was just plain unlucky that Hitler himself managed to talk to the head of army, thus terminating the operation early. Thrice unlucky that the telegraph officer refused to pass on the message of the people staging the coup, instead passing on the orders from Hitler.

Whatever it was, it was pretty hard to pin the cause down, because all of them played a part in contributing to the failure of the attempt. However, failure is not an excuse not to do what one perceives is right. If one only engages in activities that will with certainty contribute to a win, well, I can say such a life must a pretty boring and linear, with little returns to speak of. On the balancing scale for engaging such a event, perhaps it not just enough to consider concrete gains and costs, but also a separate dimension, for potential gains and costs. Higher gains, but more unlikely, and higher costs too.

Failure does not signify that the choice is a wrong one. It may be a wrong one. Thereafter, it is again a choice whether, with the extra information of this failure, to continue doing it, or if it is just a one-off kind of thing, to just live with your mistake. Too many people encounter failure and lose the courage to continue with it.

Perhaps people do not understand the meaning of choice yet. Or maybe, they do not even understand what is life, or what it means to live.