Reality TV
I was originally going to write a post on why 62% of the people in my county are ignorant luddite hippies. But I'll be writing that one tomorrow.
Today I blog surfed my way to a site that had posted videos of much of the Iraq violence that American news sensibilities won't show. I can't vouch first hand for what has been shown on TV in Europe or the rest of the world, but I know anecdotally and from my time there that they show more of the gory details on the news than we do. Went an event is horrific, they show the horror.
In American movies, if a bunch of people are going to get killed, directors employ many techniques to desensitize us to the violence. The armies under the control of James Bond bad guys dress alike, and often have their faces covered or obscured. Bad guy armies in epic pics are often helmeted and faceless as well. Look at most of the cops in The Matrix. We see no faces, we don't see them as fully human. We don't empathize; we don't mind seeing them die.
So most of the violence we see as Americans is stylized, diluted impact stuff. We never see real violence. We don't see real people suffering actual terrible fates in all their terror. And I think this has a lot to do with why we're comfortable with glorified ideas about war. Our pork chops don't look like pigs. Our chickens have no feathers, heads or feet. Little meat maxis in the bottom of the trays, so out meat remains bloodless. We contract out the messy, terrible violent aspects of our lives in our culture, which happens out of view, and hence see only the cellophane wrapped, approved for US TV versions. Dead people are in coffins, not lying in the street with their severed heads placed atop their now still backs while the blood still flows out.
So I chose to view some of the videos. Not out of any adolescent fascination with the taboo, but out of a sense of responsibility as a citizen. I need to see what's happening. I need to see who's doing the killing. I need to see who's doing the dying.
Disturbing is an understatement. You watch a person's last minutes. You wonder how terrifying it must be to be the one who's shot in the head second. You hear and feel the fate of the one next to you, and in that instant, know your fate. Beheadings aren't neat, tidy, quick or painless. There's gurgling, but no screaming.
And what to think? The masked folks who choose to pick off the least defended, least militarized periphery of the invasion effort and slaughter them publicly for maximum psychological impact: Are they acting irrationally? Direct military engagement of a technological and financial power that's developmentally decades ahead of you is suicide. If you have two pawns and your opponent has two rooks, you don't attack. You play to drag it out, and hope to win on time. You play to frustrate and annoy and to prolong the inevitable as long as possible. It's savage, it's terrible, and it's the right tactic. And could be anticipated. Don't get me wrong: I don't think these guys are brave. Hacking off the head of a bound and blindfolded fat 60 year old with the help of three other guys doesn't take any kind of courage or honor or cleverness. It requires coldness and indifference and a failure to see "the enemy" as fully human. But so does putting a bullet in the head of an old man who may still be alive, just as a precaution.
If it's cowardice to kill a helpless person, is it cowardice to kill from a distance? From hundreds of yards away, from thousands of feet in the air, from the security of elevation in the chain of command?
I feel bad for all involved. I feel bad for the dehumanization that's being perpetrated by all sides. I didn't vote to start it, and I didn't vote to perpetuate it.
Anyway, I watched it. It was terrible. So I'm still human.
*UPDATE*
Will writes a great piece on the administration's lip service to the "value of human life".
Today I blog surfed my way to a site that had posted videos of much of the Iraq violence that American news sensibilities won't show. I can't vouch first hand for what has been shown on TV in Europe or the rest of the world, but I know anecdotally and from my time there that they show more of the gory details on the news than we do. Went an event is horrific, they show the horror.
In American movies, if a bunch of people are going to get killed, directors employ many techniques to desensitize us to the violence. The armies under the control of James Bond bad guys dress alike, and often have their faces covered or obscured. Bad guy armies in epic pics are often helmeted and faceless as well. Look at most of the cops in The Matrix. We see no faces, we don't see them as fully human. We don't empathize; we don't mind seeing them die.
So most of the violence we see as Americans is stylized, diluted impact stuff. We never see real violence. We don't see real people suffering actual terrible fates in all their terror. And I think this has a lot to do with why we're comfortable with glorified ideas about war. Our pork chops don't look like pigs. Our chickens have no feathers, heads or feet. Little meat maxis in the bottom of the trays, so out meat remains bloodless. We contract out the messy, terrible violent aspects of our lives in our culture, which happens out of view, and hence see only the cellophane wrapped, approved for US TV versions. Dead people are in coffins, not lying in the street with their severed heads placed atop their now still backs while the blood still flows out.
So I chose to view some of the videos. Not out of any adolescent fascination with the taboo, but out of a sense of responsibility as a citizen. I need to see what's happening. I need to see who's doing the killing. I need to see who's doing the dying.
Disturbing is an understatement. You watch a person's last minutes. You wonder how terrifying it must be to be the one who's shot in the head second. You hear and feel the fate of the one next to you, and in that instant, know your fate. Beheadings aren't neat, tidy, quick or painless. There's gurgling, but no screaming.
And what to think? The masked folks who choose to pick off the least defended, least militarized periphery of the invasion effort and slaughter them publicly for maximum psychological impact: Are they acting irrationally? Direct military engagement of a technological and financial power that's developmentally decades ahead of you is suicide. If you have two pawns and your opponent has two rooks, you don't attack. You play to drag it out, and hope to win on time. You play to frustrate and annoy and to prolong the inevitable as long as possible. It's savage, it's terrible, and it's the right tactic. And could be anticipated. Don't get me wrong: I don't think these guys are brave. Hacking off the head of a bound and blindfolded fat 60 year old with the help of three other guys doesn't take any kind of courage or honor or cleverness. It requires coldness and indifference and a failure to see "the enemy" as fully human. But so does putting a bullet in the head of an old man who may still be alive, just as a precaution.
If it's cowardice to kill a helpless person, is it cowardice to kill from a distance? From hundreds of yards away, from thousands of feet in the air, from the security of elevation in the chain of command?
I feel bad for all involved. I feel bad for the dehumanization that's being perpetrated by all sides. I didn't vote to start it, and I didn't vote to perpetuate it.
Anyway, I watched it. It was terrible. So I'm still human.
*UPDATE*
Will writes a great piece on the administration's lip service to the "value of human life".
posted by Kenneth at 5:42 PM
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