“I love the smell of napalm in the morning”

“I love the smell of napalm in the morning”

America has 1.4 million in the military with 900,000 Reserves. All of these are hired-hands; all are volunteers seeking a job. Of these, 42 % are racial or ethnic minorities. Of these, 6.5% have had “some kind of exposure to college education”.

The economy today fights the war in Afghanistan and Iraq at a cost 0.1% of what the economy had to pay to win WWII; this figure is based upon Defense Department budget being 4% of GDP.

Thus says David M. Kennedy “In the Fourth of July debate about the state of American democracy, Kennedy, a historian at Stanford, suggested that war making was becoming too easy for American policy makers.” This article appeared in “The Atlantic” magazine.

Kennedy didn’t mention the wealth this war effort has brought to these self-same industrial leaders who influence public policy. Also he did not mention that most, if not all, of funds on Iraq and Afghanistan war is borrowed money.

War: A piece of cake—for America!

It is human nature to constantly seek “fuel for one’s own aggrandizement and immunity”. Otto Rank says “The death fear of the ego is lessoned by the killing of the other; one buys one’s self free from the penalty of dying, of being killed”. Is there any surprise then to discover that human kind is constantly engaged in war?

The ego can consign others to death without a ‘second thought’, when such will provide a sense of personal security. This is why war comes so naturally for sapiens. Considering the fact that we now have the WMDs to destroy all citizens in one single cataclysm, is there any doubt regarding the necessity that humans begin quickly a process of self-learning in order to comprehend our nature so as to possibly prevent this logical fate?

The price of our natural animal narcissism is that we will, when pressured, willingly sacrifice another in our place; with one very remarkable exception; the exception to this rule is, of course, the hero. Heroism is an amazing reversal of the rule of routine values. Heroism is another thing that makes war so wonderful and uplifting. War has become for DickandJane a ritual for the emergence of heroes. We launch our self into uncritical hero worship as a catharsis of own fears.

“The logic of Scapegoating, then, is based on animal narcissism and hidden fear. If luck, as Aristotle said, is when the arrow hits the fellow next to you, then Scapegoating is pushing the fellow into its path—with special alacrity if he is a stranger to you.

The logic contained in killing others in order to protect our own life makes clear anything that may puzzle us regarding the frequency of war in human history. When I kill an enemy and thereby affirm the power of my life, then, certainly the staging of massive life-and-death struggles affirms our whole society. The outsider ponders known incidents when the mob delighted in watching the prolonged death of someone; we need not ponder if we comprehend sapiens’ drive to survive. “They are weak and die; we are strong and live.” “My God is stronger than your God”.

The Nazis provide an example of this phenomenon. The dedicated themselves to the ‘final solution’, to large scale sacrifices of human life after 1941 when it was becoming evident that they were losing. The Jews were singled out as the scapegoat for the economic and political woes of Germany in the mid twentieth century.

Considering our propensity for war do you think that we will ever control this urge to settle differences by killing our opponent?

Many of the quotes are from “Escape from Evil”—Ernest Becker

next stop, killing pacifists.

the human animal doesn’t change…

-Imp

As far as I have seen, individual people don’t actually want to go to war. Do you want to? Do I? Not at all. Fighting is hard, painful, annoying, etc. War is so annoying and troublesome that a mob will only do it once something has motivated them enough to do it. This motive can be the mass propagation of moral fundamentalism, religious ideals, national fervor, etc,. but the main morality behind all wars is utilitarianism. In the war, each soldier is encouraged to sacrifice and offer himself as a utility for the nation, and each must obey orders from the commander. To be a soldier for war, is to also believe that life is meant to be, or is morally best as, a utility.

Ernest Becker and who ever else you just quited here : They sound like confused armchair types of men. In some ways very confused. How can someone so swiftly equate war and killing to human self-preservation and individual-survival instincts? In many ways, each soldier is encouraged to be anti-egotistical, because the utility ideals that go along with that kind of situation are generally anti-individualistic, and pro self-sacrifice.

Utilitarians believe it’s okay for someone to be sacrificed for the gang or the mob, and also they can justify any crime if it’s for the pleasure of the larger numbers. If you were strictly concerned with your own survival, you’d usually run away from all dangers, instead of being any sort of “hero” or sacrifice. Survival in long-term requires logic, reason and wisdom.

Dan

I suspect that if humans found war so abhorrent we would not constantly be at war.

I think it’s about the group vs the individual mentality. An example may be that although I kill my brain cells by drinking alcohol, the invidual suffering [of the cell] is justified by the body as a whole since I as the collective body of the cells enjoy the experience. Of course, there are long term repercussions. It’s been my conclusion that by simliar, although humans, me and you, don’t like participating in wars and suffer from it, humanity as a whole is different. Many a country has avoided economic recession, or been rescued from it, by war. Not saying it’s a good way to do things but it’s one short term solution.
I believe the utilitarian argument may also be viable from the opposite perspective: In the soldier doing whatever he can to survive, not going for mere heroism, he ensures his own ability to keep on fighting. In this individual selfishness lies the collective interest.

Have you tried it? You may like it. There is no other high then having someone try to kill you and fail. Maybe the side effect of risking your life is too much, an inferior but almost as awesome rush is sending OTHER men to die.

People get off on war, thats why it is will never go away.

One way to stop war is to pass a law that only men over the age of forty can be soldiers.

While that would probably be highly effective in our society, remember that warfare used to be a privillage of a special class of rich landowners, most of whom were probably middle aged. Of course they still needed their cannon fodder.

Can’t wage war without it.

I suspect that what some people find abhorrent, seems justified to others. Our tendency towards violence seems to be somewhat innate.

Wars are the antidote to socio-political stagnation, IMO.

We need another big one soon; shake things up a bit …

There is nothing that is guaranteed but I am convinced that we must first understand what we are and why we do the things that we do. In order for us to begin the process of learning such things we must first recognize that our educational system is designed to make us into good producers and consumers who do not rock the boat. We must learn to become independent critical thinking self-actualizing self-learners.

Abraham Maslow defined a hierarchy of needs to be:

  1. Biological and Physiological (water, food, shelter, air, sex, etc.)
  2. Safety (security, law and order, stability, etc.)
  3. Belonging and love (family, affection, community, etc.)
  4. Esteem (self-esteem, independence, prestige, achievement, etc.)
  5. Self-Actualization (self-fulfillment, personal growth, realizing personal potential, etc.)

This hierarchy makes us conscious of the obvious fact that we did not fret about the absence of self-esteem if we did not already have security nor did we worry about security if we did not have water to drink or air to breath.

“Maslow says there are two processes necessary for self-actualization: self exploration and action. The deeper the self exploration, the closer one comes to self-actualization.”

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This is the need we may call self-actualization … It refers to man’s desire for fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become actually in what he is potentially: to become everything that one is capable of becoming …”

I think that the area in which Western society fails most egregiously is in the matter of an intellectual life after schooling. We have a marvelous brain that goes into the attic after schooling is complete and is brought out only occasionally on the job or when we try to play bridge or chess.

It appears to me that the fundamental problem faced by most Western democracies is a lack of intellectual sophistication of the total population. Our colleges and universities have prepared young people to become good producers and consumers. The college graduate has a large specialized database that allows that individual to quickly enter the corporate world as a useful cog in the machine. The results display themselves in our thriving high standard of living, high technology corporate driven life styles.

We are excellent at instrumental rationality and deficient at developing the rationality and understanding required for determining normative values. It seems to me that our societies are not prepared intellectually for the demanding task ahead. The only solution seems to be a change that will significantly increase the intellectual sophistication of the society as a whole. We need a rising tide of intellectual sophistication and Self-Actualization might be the way for our adults to add an intellectual life to their acquisitions.

To get an idea about S-A you might examine performance-unlimited.com/samain.htm You can do a Google and find other sites that you might find more interesting.

It is the job of schools to teach us how to be conformists, not individuals. They indoctrinate us into the theories of language and math and art which have all been created by someone else and was agreed upon by the many over the few. We learn how to be individuals outside of schools not inside it.

Incorrect.

The “job” of schools is to educate people. They do not “produce” either conformists or individuals, freedom of choice allows the individuals to choose their paths. Some choose conformity, others do not.

That said, I’d ask you to think about what you know about test results, levels of education and whatnot and then I think you’ve just addressed the problem inherent in self-actualization. Many are not capable of it, many who would be just will not bother with it.

I see no one at fault other than the individuals themselves. Quit blaming “education” or “economics” lest you want to be labeled as mere worthless Marxists or Deweyans in my eyes.

Personal responsibility is a bitch. So is life. The “system” only represents what is “wrong” with those who made it.

The job of schools is to educate people in what others already think. That is indoctrination. You have choices in earning a living but it is limited to what others will pay for. I’ve got no problems with the education system since I’m a product of it. You get out of it what you put into it.

Though it is true that schools teach some useful information, for the most part their agenda is to churn out good, productive little citizens who will be unlikely to rock the boat.

Knowledge that is disruptive to the status quo, or that will cause danger to the status quo - is ignored.

Like what?

New and/or unproven knowledge is pretty much ignored until it can stand on its own. It has always been that way, with Galileo and Darwin and so on.

What you just described could not be called “knowledge.” Unless you want schools teaching mythology and religion.