Yes Sal, I agree that the economic and class theory does hold a lot of water here, especially in the current war, since the kids from the middle class are not fighting in this one to the same extent as those from rural populations and poor urban areas.
However Tom is touching on something of great truth in reference to individual ethics. He is right to state the option that the pilots, even in combat, can act in a basic humane way, no matter how seemingly gratuitous it may be in that particular context.
But to your point about the societal aspect, here's some quotes from an interview with Chris Hedges author of "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning"
"Once you enter a conflict, or at the inception of a conflict, you are given a language by which you speak. The state gives you a language to speak and you can't speak outside that language or it becomes very difficult. There is no communication outside of the cliché and the jingos, "The War on Terror," "Showdown With Iraq," "The Axis of Evil," all of this stuff.
So that whatever disquiet we feel, we no longer have the words in which to express it. The myth predominates. The myth, which is a lie, of course, built around glory, heroism, heroic self-sacrifice, the nobility of the nation. And it is a kind of intoxication. People lose individual conscience for this huge communal enterprise. "
and further in the interview:
"There is a kind of suspension of self-criticism, both as a nation and as a person that takes place in wartime. And that's part of what removes the anxiety of normal daily living. We're no longer required to make moral choice. Moral choice has been made for us by the state. And to question the decisions of the state is to be branded, not only a traitor, but to be pushed outside that kind of communal entity within a society that war always creates. And that's a very difficult, lonely and painful experience.
So most people, not necessarily because they're bad people in any way, but most people find it emotionally far more convenient, but also far more pleasurable just to go along."
So I disagree with the phrase "as much ethical importance as a bag of sand" I think that faced with the powerful mythologies offered in war, actual acts of charity and kindness are magnified a million times over.
(although as a turn of phrase, Sal, I fucking love it, and I am going to steal it from you)
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However Tom is touching on something of great truth in reference to individual ethics. He is right to state the option that the pilots, even in combat, can act in a basic humane way, no matter how seemingly gratuitous it may be in that particular context.
But to your point about the societal aspect, here's some quotes from an interview with Chris Hedges author of "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning"
"Once you enter a conflict, or at the inception of a conflict, you are given a language by which you speak. The state gives you a language to speak and you can't speak outside that language or it becomes very difficult. There is no communication outside of the cliché and the jingos, "The War on Terror," "Showdown With Iraq," "The Axis of Evil," all of this stuff.
So that whatever disquiet we feel, we no longer have the words in which to express it. The myth predominates. The myth, which is a lie, of course, built around glory, heroism, heroic self-sacrifice, the nobility of the nation. And it is a kind of intoxication. People lose individual conscience for this huge communal enterprise. "
and further in the interview:
"There is a kind of suspension of self-criticism, both as a nation and as a person that takes place in wartime. And that's part of what removes the anxiety of normal daily living. We're no longer required to make moral choice. Moral choice has been made for us by the state. And to question the decisions of the state is to be branded, not only a traitor, but to be pushed outside that kind of communal entity within a society that war always creates. And that's a very difficult, lonely and painful experience.
So most people, not necessarily because they're bad people in any way, but most people find it emotionally far more convenient, but also far more pleasurable just to go along."
So I disagree with the phrase "as much ethical importance as a bag of sand" I think that faced with the powerful mythologies offered in war, actual acts of charity and kindness are magnified a million times over.
(although as a turn of phrase, Sal, I fucking love it, and I am going to steal it from you)
- LM 5-29-2004 9:55 am