Re: [Marxism] Anybody's Son Will Do
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society http://www.amazon.com/dp/0316330116 From Publishers Weekly Drawing on interviews, published personal accounts and academic studies, Grossman investigates the psychology of killing in combat. Stressing that human beings have a powerful, innate resistance to the taking of life, he examines the techniques developed by the military to overcome that aversion. His provocative study focuses in particular on the Vietnam war, revealing how the American soldier was enabled to kill to a far greater degree than any other soldier in history. Grossman argues that the breakdown of American society, combined with the pervasive violence in the media and interactive video games, is conditioning our children to kill in a manner siimilar to the army's conditioning of soldiers: We are reaching that stage of desensitization at which the infliction of pain and suffering has become a source of entertainment: vicarious pleasure rather than revulsion. We are learning to kill, and we are learning to like it. Grossman, a professor of military science at Arkansas State University, has written a study of relevance to a society of escalating violence. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From Library Journal Grossman (psychology, West Point) presents three important hypotheses: 1) That humans possess the reluctance to kill their own kind; 2) that this reluctance can be systematically broken down by use of standard conditioning techniques; and 3) that the reaction of normal (e.g., non-psychopathic) soliders to having killed in close combat can be best understood as a series of stages similar to the ubiquitous Kubler-Ross stages of reaction to life-threatening disease. While some of the evidence to support his theories have been previously presented by military historians (most notably, John Keegan), this systematic examination of the individual soldier's behavior, like all good scientific theory making, leads to a series of useful explanations for a variety of phenomena, such as the high rate of post traumatic stress disorders among Vietnam veterans, why the rate of aggravated assault continues to climb, and why civilian populations that have endured heavy bombing in warfare do not have high incidents of mental illness. This important book deserves a wide readership. Essential for all libraries serving military personnel or veterans, including most public libraries. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Anybody's Son Will Do
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Many thanks Ray, for that URL. I have watched the film this morning - and cannot help wondering what its impact is on those who have never served in their country's army. For me, having joined the British army only in August 1944, aged 19 -it felt like the truth personified. The first drill sergeant (not actually the first, because I spent six weeks in primary training, of which I have few memories, before joining the Armoured Corps for my main training as a driver/(wireless) operator impressed on one's memory, which left me with the pride in the Royal Tank Regiment) - how true. (This was up in Co. Durham - so different from my home territory of East Anglia - with its stone houses, and a dialect Geordie which was mainly incomprehensible to me when arrived). My first (in Armoured Corps training) was named Sergeant Steel - what an appropriate name - and certainly his face is truly impressed on my memory, as someone the whole troop came to partly regard as a lunatic demon, but who yet gained a deep-seated respect. Then this was followed by officer training at Sandhurst, which was even more vigorous as well as more academic with theory of strategy and tactics as well as the combat training which left me at my heaviest ever with muscles I had never known I had !! The main difference between my experience and that of today's recruits was that we were training to liberate the world from fascism, not to simply be used as tools of our and other governments' attempts to rule the world ... a difference which puts a whole new complexion on the system and basis of army training. By the time I was commissioned as a junior officer VE-day had come, to be followed by VJ-day before the planned embarkation of my unit for the Far East, and I spent two very eventual (and, in retrospect) enjoyable and educative years in occupation duties in Italy and Egypt - in which, as a very young man, I was entrusted with responsibilities which were vast in comparison with anything I experienced in the remainder of my professional life. It still remains almost impossible for me to enter into any deep conversation, whether concerned with politics or with family and local affairs, without harking back to parallels, and sometimes solutions, which are coloured by my 4 years in the army. Paddy http://apling.freeservers.com -Original Message- From: marxism-bounces+e.c.apling=btinternet@lists.econ.utah.edu [mailto:marxism-bounces+e.c.apling=btinternet@lists.econ.utah.edu] On Behalf Of jay rothermel Sent: 22 April 2010 2:13 AM To: e.c.apl...@btinternet.com Subject: [Marxism] Anybody's Son Will Do == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == http://www.countercurrents.org/willers200410.htm In 1983, the National Film Board of Canada produced a 57-minute film, Anybody's Son Will Do. Arguably the best anti-war film ever made, and tailored for public television, it scared the hell out of the U.S. military machine, which has done its best to disappear it. For years it has been nearly impossible to find a copy, but some kind soul has posted it on YouTube where it can be seen in six segments. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DShDaJXK5q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DShDaJXK5qo Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/e.c.apling%40btinternet.c om Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
Re: [Marxism] Anybody's Son Will Do
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == You should remember how often young officers (and those grew up as petot=bourgeois, like Lenin) have played substantial roles in successful revolutionary outbreaks - just think of Abdul Nassar in Egypt, the overthrow of Salazar in Portugal, just to name a couple. I feel sure that thepolitical discussions in the British Army, conducted by troop officers on the basis of material produced by the Army Bureau of Current Affairs for weekly discussions, played a not-insubstantial role in the electoral defeat pf WinstonChurchill and his Tory minions in Britain in 1945 (though I was expected to lead my troop in political discussions - I was too young to vote in 1945). Don't be so blatantly short-sighted.. Paddy http://apling.freeservers.com -Original Message- From: marxism-bounces+e.c.apling=btinternet@lists.econ.utah.edu [mailto:marxism-bounces+e.c.apling=btinternet@lists.econ.utah.edu] On Behalf Of S. Artesian Sent: 22 April 2010 1:58 PM To: e.c.apl...@btinternet.com Subject: Re: [Marxism] Anybody's Son Will Do == Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Dear Lord, save us from our officers and we'll do the rest. - Original Message - From: Paddy Apling e.c.apl...@btinternet.com Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/e.c.apling%40btinternet.c om Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
