Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Fish
Thanks Albert.
And Cap'n - I don't want to start rumers so I should clarify. Those stats apply strictly to the infantry. Firing and killing rates have always been higher among the airforce (due to physical distance from the victim), and artillery (due to shared responsiblity and group absolution of these "teamwork" weapons). Also does not apply to some of the horrible attrocities and ethnic war crimes (due to moral distance from the victim).
I have seen lectures given by Grossman and he compares our aversion to harming each other to horned animals that fight members of their own species by ramming head-on against the stongest part of their oponent's body but who will attact a member of another species from the side with a horn in their belly. Piranas hit each other with their tails but will set their teeth to anything else that hits the water, and the only animal a rattlesnake will not bite is another rattlesnake.
In his conclusion he points out that the same techniques used to "take the safety catch off" of modern soldiers to make them more efficient, are present in the media and videogames our children are watching and playing.
Now there's a scary thought for you to think about Bev  .
- Chad |
Thanks for the clarification and further info. I can easily see how proximity to the victims would play a huge role in the ease of killing the target. Imagine what had to hand combat must have been like for the foot soldiers before the intruduction of firearms. Great cross-references from nature as well.
I agree with Grossman about the media and it's desensitizing effects, especially on children. Have you ever noticed in a movie theatre more people wince when a dog or cat is harmed than when a person is? I don't think this is because we care more for our pets than our fellow man, we're just used to seeing our fellow man get tortured. This is one of the reasons we don't watch TV or play violent video games in our home.
Did you see the clip of the American soldier describing how listening to music in his helmet served to take him away from the action, make it more like a video game, make it fun? That's straight out of "Starship Troopers". I mean the book, not the cheesey movie.