Ming the Mechanic:
War is Fun

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 War is Fun2002-11-23 20:21
13 comments
picture by Flemming Funch

Part of what keeps us all from living in an entirely peaceful world is that, if we're honest about it, most of us find guns and violence and war very entertaining. War makes for great programs on the History Channel. Violence makes for great action movies, and most of us cheer when the good guy kills the bad guy at the end. Guns are kind of cool and sexy. It is a powerful feeling to shoot a gun. Part of what motivates people to be police officers or soldiers is that you drive fast, or fly expensive toys, and you chase bad guys and you blow things up.

But what we like is exactly the game aspect of it. The thrill and risk, the power, the rush, the gadgetry, the stimulating special effects. But if we are really exposed to the effects of violence and war, very, very few of us would think that it is cool. Just one bullet, or the tiniest of bombs, do horrible things to human bodies. Just one life lost, or one life lived as an invalid, can be a huge tragedy for the people involved. The only way we accept it as a society is to be detached from it, by just watching it on TV and thinking about it abstractly. Yeah, let's go whip Saddam's ass real good. Looks good on TV. But we aren't able to fathom the scope of what several hundred thousand dead Iraqi children means. It is just numbers. And most Americans have never even heard about those numbers.

We'll have to embrace our desire for action and violence, and provide for it, without leaving all those innocent victims behind. I hear people giving visions of the future where there is no violence. "In the New Civilization there must be no violence!" Aha, ok, then what are you going to do with the people who want it? Outlaw boxing and wrestling? Action movies? Body piercing? Jackass stunts? That's all violent stuff, but it is violence that people volunteer for. And it is entertaining. Hoping that nobody will be interested in watching it just isn't going to work. Finding a harmonious relation between all sides of ourselves is more likely to take us somewhere.


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13 comments

24 Nov 2002 @ 01:27 by shawa : Good point, Ming.
Very, very good point. And very, very appropriate picture. Obscene, but appropriate.
Finding a way to an inner balance "between the parts of ourselves" sounds like "psychosynthesis" to me. Don´t "do" violence, do PS instead! (I know how to do that, interested parties just contact me! *grin*)
Men groove on war, and women groove on money - how much do you think that girl got paid to do that horror show?  



24 Nov 2002 @ 02:26 by ming : Girls with Guns
Yeah, I certainly think that picture is mostly made for the guys, and that she could care less what she had to do. You can even buy videos that consist of nothing but bikini babes firing automatic weapons. You know, for an hour. And, hey, I'd probably watch it. I'm a gentle pacifist, but I'm also a guy.  


24 Nov 2002 @ 06:04 by neolux : all fun till someone looses an arm
"Yeah, let's go whip Saddam's ass real good. Looks good on TV. But we aren't able to fathom the scope of what several hundred thousand dead Iraqi children means. It is just numbers. And most Americans have never even heard about those numbers. "
Instead of railing against an abstract hundreds of thousand children the united states may kill, how about some sympathy for what is REALLY happening now? {http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?current_row=1&tf=tgam/columnists/FullColumn.html&cf=tgam/columnists/FullColumn.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&date=&dateOffset=&hub=margaretWente&title=Margaret_Wente&cache_key=margaretWente&start_row=1&num_rows=1}  



24 Nov 2002 @ 13:33 by sharie : what's real
U.S. billionaires have murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent children... their parents are now living with that reality.

It may be easy for you to be cold, heartless and callous about a dead child.

But the impact this has upon the psyche of the survivors around the world will have global repercussions.  



24 Nov 2002 @ 14:21 by ming : Children
Neolux, my reference was to what has happened in the past. The numbers are different from different sources, but that's the range we're talking about. 150,000 dead children from the U.N. sanctions. 10's of thousands from the previous U.S. bombings.  


24 Nov 2002 @ 16:00 by neolux : i think its really great
that you guys can speak or write whatever is on your mind, for the whole world to see. Keep it up. i think it is a good thing for people to see how each other are thinking.  


24 Nov 2002 @ 16:11 by istvan : Ah, now we nkow
Who Neolux is?

People in this country truly do not know what wiolence can create. I often wonder What the pilot of a warplane feels when he releses his bombs, that kill, mame amd cause the ones down below to loose their houses, friends and animals.
Since i was on the ground,in the past being bombed i know how that feels.Since i also bomb roaches( i live in the roach infested state of Florida), o i wonder if the pilot even thimks of feels anything about the people below. Is it to him like a video game or does he even think. Robots do not think or feel. They merely carry out programmed tasks. Would it not be the gratest adventure to wake up, turn on some bomber crews to go on strike. There is a task for you, but it rquires beyond human capabilities.
AT LEAST I SOMETIMES APOLOGISE TO THE ROACHES.  



25 Nov 2002 @ 09:17 by shawa : LOL...
Zendancer, that´s NICE...  


26 Nov 2002 @ 02:15 by fleer : Possible explanations
I started out writing a pretty long comment, but post it in my own log instead.
{nl:000050-000008|War is Fun II by FlemmingLeer}  



27 Nov 2002 @ 04:26 by gyrfalcon : Not so sure...
Children are violent, well at times they throw tantrums and are aggressive. You will never stop that. As far as "No War!" Maybe war or rather fighting will always be a part of this world to some degree. The Second World War threw up some many new developments right across the board that came out of humanity's desire to conquer others...Mars force. Rockets and Radio being 2. Would these have been developed with such zest without war? Ostensibly war and violence is used and manipulated by Politicians to make personal gains that should be stopped. However you will never stop 2 men fighting over a woman or somebody trying to take something from another person by violence. Yes there is Glamour, though many died in the war I recall a program on the American Mustang Pilots, initially it was a real thrill for people to be given a plane to fly. One guy said he felt like a real hero when he got his plane. So perhaps if we are co-creators we create the situtation in which there is a guy like Sadaam or Hitler which our countries can fight and thus we get experiences that otherwise we wouldn't have! So in this world there will always be violence in my view - the issue is whether that violence is used and manipulated by people in power to take over other countries for their gain!  


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