As A Socierty Have We Become Immune To The Concept Of War
April 6, 2008 by alpersa
Week after week in class the tragedies of war become more immune to our conversation. In the first couple weeks of hearing stories of families at war that have lost their loved ones, recieved a completely different reaction from the class as a whole there were more comments regarding sympathy for the family and friends. However, I feel that as time has passed we have begun to become immune to the concept of death and injury at war and the sypathitic undertones that were once in our voices have slowly diminished. For everyday discussion in the classroom this has been a positive thing allowing us to focus more on content rather then sympathy. However, I think that the sympathitic aspect needs to be focused on in everyday society. We do not want to forget the family members that are losing their loved ones and these are the individuals we need to keep in our hearts and prayers.
The first time I saw a big change in our class’s tone of voice while disscussing tragedies of war was during the discussion of Night, the nobel peace prize award winnng novel by Elie Wiesel. The Holocaust is one of the most tragic events in world history, however, no one’s tone of voice seemed to show much sympathy for what the Jews had suffered during this horrible time period. Every individual in our class has sympathy for victims and survivors of the Holocaust however, it is a historical topic that we have talked about since our first days of history class. Was the repetion of the same infomation causing us to show less emotions for the victims? I feel horrible about all the families that were torn apart during the Holocaust I could not bear the thought of someone doing this to my family. However, when I talk about the Holocaust it is as if I show no remorse for the victims this is only because it is a topic that I have disscussed, read numerous books, newspaper articles, and seen various movies on. The infomation is not new and shocking to me anymore. This is how I feel that American society is begining to view the Iraq War.
The Iraq War began with the attacks on the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001. Just under three thousand innocent Americans lost their lives. This was a tragic day in history and will definitely be one in everyone’s hearts. However, the death toll of the Iraq War just plunged to over four thousand. Will we remember all of those that died? Will they remain in our hearts like the vicitims of September 11? They should, however, the pathetic truth is that they probably will not and slowly will be forgetten over time. Is it because the three thousand deaths were on the same day so it is easier to remember that one day rather than the hundreds of days in the past seven years that solidiers have died? Would it make a difference if it was your own child, uncle, aunt, husband, wife, sister, or brother? As a society we need to keep these families in our thoughts everyday in order to insure that we still show symapthy and appraciation for our brothers and sisters fighting at war.
Sources
New York Reduces 9/11 Death Toll by 40
CNN.com
4 April 2008
Hundreds Protest Iraq War as Death Toll Hits 4,000
Washington Square News
4 April 2007
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[...] alpersa wrote an interesting post today on As A Socierty Have We Become Immune To The Concept Of WarHere’s a quick excerptThe Iraq War began with the attacks on the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001. Just under three thousand innocent Americans lost their lives. This was a tragic day in history and will definitely be one in everyone’s hearts. … [...]
[...] alpersa wrote an interesting post today on As A Socierty Have We Become Immune To The Concept Of WarHere’s a quick excerptThe Iraq War began with the attacks on the World Trade Towers on September 11, 2001. Just under three thousand innocent Americans lost their lives. This was a tragic day in history and will definitely be one in everyone’s hearts. … [...]
It’s also important that the number of 4,000 is just the number of US soldiers killed in the line of duty in Iraq. Not the one who were wounded and not the countless innocent civilians who have died as well. The number is much more staggering, but it in only what we choose to see.
While it is important to be sympathetic and empathetic when possible, if it is done too much it can lead to apathy. Everyone’s grief and pain becomes the same. Coping mechanisms blur together and counseling becomes a series of mad-libs with fill in the blank emotions ad nouns.
It is true that just talking about war and violence slowly desensitizes us. But how long can we be held underwater before we finally grow gills. This class will pass before us in just one week and we will go without major discussion of war and violence for months, and then it will seem just a horrific again. We are a nation of desensitization. Smoking kills the taste buds, drinking kills the reality, and war kills the soul. We are all running out of nerves to kill, but the human body is a spring of hope. We can repair our lungs until we are thirty-something to offset the smoking we did. We can put the bottle of Jim Beam down and pick up cranberry juice and flush our system out and be anew in hours. We can reflect upon other things than war and return to a balance of our soul in which we aren’t indebted to our own conscience.
“Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed.” – Tom Clancy
[...] Abby [...]
There is so much truth to this blog, it’s scary. As a criminal justice major, I am exposed to the most heinous crimes a human being can possibly do to another fellow human being. We are repeatedly shown death and injury in the media through videos, movies, cartoons, video games, etc. So of course it won’t be anything new to us. It eventually becomes something that just happens, like a leaf falling to the ground.
So we know the ways in which someone can die, thanks to movies like SAW and Full Metal Jacket. It’s no big deal because they’re just actors. Could it be that in real wartime, we still keep that mentality? The soldiers are just actors or numbers?
Like Gavin said, we just see numbers in casualties, we don’t see the casualties.