I'm curious....
How much effect the advent of television and movies has had on our (as a culture) willingness to engage in warfare. While people often credit TV (Huntley-Brinkley-Cronkite) for helping to end the VietNam war by delivering the reality of the carnage to our living rooms, at the same time, we are subject to an endless series of fictional scenarios in which, with the sacrifice of secondary and tertiary players in the game, the heroes ALWAYS win in the end.
That would certainly help explain the chickenhawk mentality. The problem isn't that they haven't experienced actual combat and warfare. The problem is that they've experienced an idealized and unrealistic version instead. That's why they keep on insisting that we clap louder. They actually believe that that's the key to victory. It also helps explain all this claptrap about "giving comfort to the enemy". They actually beleive that cheerleading helps us win.
Scary......
--Paul Dirks (a letter to the editor in Salon.com)
2 comments:
Sorry Paul Dirks, but I believe the problem IS that most "Chickenhawks" have not experienced "warfare and combat" thus the tag. :-)
Thanks, CC
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Christianity_Debate/
http://www.airamerica.com/
I don't think that the cultural celebration of war is greater now than in the past.
We don't have John Wayne movies anymore. When I was growing up, boys played with army men and set up vast battles. Playing war and soldier was a common game. Now, not so much. In earlier centuries, there would have been even more celebration of soldiers and war as a cultural ideal.
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